Re: Pinewood Derby Winning

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My oldest son is not of the athletic type. I have been working on
stressing that it is important just to participate and have fun. He'll
now will run a race he knows he really doesn't have a chance winning
just because he now understands that he can still have fun
participating. He no longer throws a temper tantrum because he lost. I
praise his efforts and remind him that he did have fun even if he didn't
win.

This is the _real_ attitude that needs to be stressed. You can have fun
even if you don't have a chance of winning. I remember my first
Pinewood Derby car. My father helped me with it. This car came in
last, but I had fun building it with my father. The next year, we
applied some of the techniques we saw used in the other cars. We tried a
different design, and we used a different method in lubricating the
wheels. Again, we didn't win the race, but the car at least finished in
the top five instead of last.

We were elated, not only did we have fun building the car, but we were
able to apply what we learned last year and produced a better car. This
is the real idea in scouting, to have fun and to learn.

Maybe the problem is winning becomes stressed a little too much. The
kid who cannot run or throw the ball as far is teased and mocked. We as
parents can be guilty of it too. I've seen cub packs where everything
is a competition. There are no co-operative activities. Kids who win
are praised over and over, those who don't are told "don't worry winning
isn't everything". But, these kids see that no one really means it. I
think those who do well should be encouraged to help those who don't.

I think it would be great if the winners of the Pinewood Derby were to
share their secrets, so next year, everybody could do better. This
would be much better than trying to pretend that there is no such thing
as a winner.

--
David Weintraub      | Opinions expressed are mine and not Telerate's
davidw@cnj.digex.net | Not that anyone listens to me anyway

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