Life Lessons

Last weekend Matthew participated in the Lego League Championship. I went into the day not knowing too much about how the competition worked.  He has been staying afterschool twice a week all year working on their project and last Saturday was the day it was all supposed to come together. 

Each team had 2.5 minutes to complete a series of tasks using a programmed Lego robot.   Best out of 4 tries to earn points.  Earlier in the day there was a skit and knowledge (question answer) portion as well.  All three categories were taken into consideration for the final awards.  Here's where Matthew had to learn a hard but good life lesson. 

There were 9 teams, I think, maybe 10. They gave out 8 awards.  I watched Matthew's face as they announced the winner of each category go from hopeful to sad each time.  He'd think it was their turn then realize another team was getting the award. It was hard to watch, the disappointment... my first reaction was shock that organizers wouldn't put two and two together and realize there would be one odd team out.  Shame on me......  see what society has even me thinking?? 

I think it is important that kids realize that not everyone can win.  As a teacher and parent I see a LOT of "everyone's a winner" going around and firmly believe it is setting our children up for even bigger disappointments later in life.  Not everyone is a winner, and kids need to know what it feels like to lose.  This was one of Matthew's first experiences with that.  He melted into a puddle of tears in my lap when all was said and done complaining, "we were the only team that didn't get anything...."  How do you respond to that?  It does seem unfair, thank you current society for teaching my child everyone should always get something. (that's sarcasm). 

The truth?  His team wasn't that good, they were disorganized and clearly the least prepared team there.  While I didn't like to see my child so upset I am thankful that they walked away with nothing. It may sound harsh, but had they been rewarded for their mediocrity, then what would their motivation be to do better the next time?  I told him that it was okay to be disappointed, it is a legitimate feeling and everyone is disappointed sometimes.  But I also told him that I didn't want him to walk away from this day with that being his only feeling or the only thing he took away from it.  I wanted him to remember all the fun he had afterschool with his friends preparing for the event, the t-shirts they got to wear, the pizza lunch, all of the positive things.... and maybe a hunger to do better next time and earn their recognition......