SNOWFLAKES IN U.K.: Over Half Of U.K. Primary Schools Hold Sports Days But Won’t Announce The Winners

By: Hank Berrien

Imagine a world in which the civilizing influence of the British Empire over the last three hundred years had been absent because the British refused to win wars.

That might have been the reality if the current mindset in the United Kingdom’s primary schools had prevailed, a mindset so set on political correctness that over half of primary schools are holding non-competitive sports days that refuse to announce who the winner is.

Instead, the schools have events in which there is no individual competition, but rather a series of groups of children working in teams.

That attitude was revealed in a poll by Families Online, which warned that children must learn that “losing is completely ok.” Families Online polled roughly 300 parents with children aged four to 11.

57% of parents surveyed said their children’s infant and primary schools held sports days with a “non-competitive theme.” That offended a huge majority of parents; 82% wanted “old school” competitive sports days back, arguing children must realize “you can’t always win at everything in life and sometimes you have to lose.” In addition, 76% of parents surveyed disapproved of “non-competitive” events, asserting “healthy competition helped children individually to strive to improve and challenge themselves.”

53% admitted freely that they were “comfortable” if their child lost; they felt such a scenario was not “a bad thing” because it inculcated resilience and confidence. 43% of parents thought losing was an important life skill.

Only 14% of parents liked non-competitive sports days; only 18% said sports days shouldn’t revolve around individual competition.

Faye Mingo, director of marketing at Families Online, stated:

Sports day is always a contentious one; as parents we are proud of our children and we want to encourage them and cheer them on at the finish line. But perhaps in our bid to protect and shield them from the disappointment of losing we have in fact removed the traditional competitive spirit of sports days? People take part in the Olympics and there are winners and there are losers, this is normal stuff and our children are strong enough to cope with that. There is of course nothing wrong with developing team spirit via group activities, but the results from this survey show that as parents we believe we should be helping our children to deal with disappointment and to understand that losing is completely ok.

Those on the Left have been trying to strip Great Britain of its historical dominance for years. The idea of renouncing competition among children is simply more of that.

But as historian Niall Ferguson wrote in his brilliant book Empire:

The fact remains that no organization in history has done more to promote the free movement of goods, capital and labor than the British Empire in the 19th and early 20th centuries. And no organization has done more to impose Western norms of law, order and governance around the world.

Ferguson also noted the British Empire’s contributions of English forms of land ownership, Common Law, representative assemblies, and modern notions of freedom and liberty.

http://www.dailywire.com/news/18313/snowflakes-uk-over-half-uk-primary-schools-hold-hank-berrien