Competition

I probably should preface this post with a true statement about myself: I am a competitive person. And now that you know that, I shall proceed.

As a Cub Scout, Damon had his first opportunity to participate in the Pinewood Derby. Which, of course, meant that he chose a design for his car and Jeff did almost all the work on it. Handling a hacksaw, drill, file and spray paint are not exactly something our 8 year old is capable by himself. Plus, I think Jeff was reliving his "glory days," remembering building cars with his dad when he was a Cub Scout.

The finished product was a sweet looking little red and yellow car, weighing in just under the limit of 5 ounces. Both Damon and Jeff were quite proud of it.

We showed up at the church ready to race. Jeff was disappointed by the track, which was not up to his standards, and didn't even have an electronic timer on it. He kept telling me how pinewood derby was the biggest event of his year as a Cub Scout and he was hoping it would be similar for Damon.

(Sidenote: The Activity Days girls had also been invited to participate, which I think is really cool. I would have loved to build a car when I was growing up.)

The racing started and consisted of several different heats. Two "judges" sat at the finish line to declare which car won each race. Although it became clear from the start that it didn't matter which car won. Everyone was going to be a "winner."

At 7:00, the racing was declared over and the awards were given out. Every kid got an award. I have absolutely no problem with that at all. I think everyone who built a car deserved one. Two awards were given out for sportsmanship, which I think was a great idea. But not one single mention was given to who actually had the fastest car. Heaven forbid we mention the obvious--that some cars actually raced down the track faster than others.

And that's what I have a problem with. I'm all about sportsmanship and focusing on the kids having a good time. But I also don't think there is anything wrong with a little competition. Would it have been so bad to have awards for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place (one category for the boys and one category for the girls)? As much as we want to pretend otherwise, real life is FULL of competition. And while we don't need to ONLY celebrate the victories, there are many, many lessons that can be learned from losing. Determination, hard work, dealing with disappointment...those are things we all need to learn at some point. Why not in a setting that is perfectly set up for it--a car race?

I'm not just saying this because Damon's car was super fast and won every heat it was in. If his car had been the slowest, I still would have rather some awards been given based on performance. It would have provided a little bit of incentive to build a better, faster car next year and maybe encourage a little character development as the kids deal with both losing and winning (it's also important to learn to be a gracious winner. Something Damon needs to work on).

(What is Kyla doing this picture? A backbend out Jeff's arms?)

Overall, it was a fun night. I know that a lot of hard work went into making it enjoyable for everyone, and I don't want to diminish my appreciation of them at all. I just wish we (as a society) didn't feel the need to take competition out of everything. Maybe you feel differently. But I'm a competitive person. Which means I always want to win.