What no one here has mentioned yet is that for most people, after you get out of school, you won't be winning first place and yet you will be rewarded (with a paycheck) for just showing up and doing a fairly average job.
The other comments with walking a fine line with this are spot on. How quickly we forget another piece of favorite HN repostery: praise kids for effort, not for being smart (or some other supposedly intrinsic quality). Yes, the kid that shows up, sticks his finger up his nose and receives a participation prize has learned little, but the kid that showed up, worked really hard, and totally failed might still get something out of it.
But they will be in for a surprise when get to that first job interview and don't get the job just for showing up. Getting a job is the real prize. And they usually don't hand those out just for showing up.
What no one here has mentioned yet is that for most people, after you get out of school, you won't be winning first place and yet you will be rewarded (with a paycheck) for just showing up and doing a fairly average job.
The other comments with walking a fine line with this are spot on. How quickly we forget another piece of favorite HN repostery: praise kids for effort, not for being smart (or some other supposedly intrinsic quality). Yes, the kid that shows up, sticks his finger up his nose and receives a participation prize has learned little, but the kid that showed up, worked really hard, and totally failed might still get something out of it.