Nowadays, we aren’t allowed to offend anyone’s sensibilities with things like intellectual banter, or an offhand reference to a vague gender identity we may have been given at birth. Everyone is a very special butterfly, a unicorn worthy of adoration and praise. Differences are only to be celebrated when they confer an added benefit on a government reference chart, or when their very presence helps an entity qualify for additional grant money.
And so, was birthed, the “participation trophy.” I didn’t have these when I was a kid, but they’ve become wildly popular in the last decade or so, culminating, even, with the disbursement of a Nobel Peace Prize for “potential.” Now, at least one parent – Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison – is fighting back. When his sons brought home “participation trophies” for their work as part of a sports team, he made them give the trophies back…but only after he wrote about it on Instagram.
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Raising them right.