A majority of Fortune 500 companies and many colleges and universities now employ sensitivity trainers to "educate" their workforce about the special problems and issues faced by any person or group who might be considered a minority or disadvantaged; in other words, anyone who isn't a physically healthy, emotionally mature, white male.

In large part, it is an effort to eliminate the differences that make us unique, resulting in everyone seeing everyone else as completely equal in every way and doing or saying nothing that might offend someone's tender sensibilities. Public school textbooks are constantly being rewritten with this objective in mind and most things written pre-1970 simply aren't acceptable any more.

I remember when kids actually flunked; not just exams but grades. I went to school with a guy who flunked the fourth grade once and the sixth grade twice. I ended up graduating with him when I was 17 and he was 20 but, theoretically, it just took him three years longer to learn the stuff required to graduate than it did me. The administrative and teaching philosophy then was that a child had to demonstrate a minimum proficiency level to be passed and could NOT be passed until they were able to do that, regardless of how old they were or how many times they failed. You don't hear very much about kids failing grades any more because it's perceived that it might affect them emotionally in negative ways.

When you started school in kindergarten there was one ultimate goal in mind and that was to graduate from high school. It took 13 long years but, when you made it, it was an accomplishment to be proud of. Today the chances are high that a young person will graduate four different times before they receive their high school diploma; from pre-school, from kindergarten, from elementary school, and from junior high school because we want to "empower" our young people with feelings of success.

When we played sports, we played to win because that's how we were and are judged in a free-market democracy. We value winning in this society. In fact, winning and being successful are always listed in the top 10 values in this society whenever the pollsters ask that question. So we were intent on winning a medal that said we were better at that particular sport or event than most of the other kids in it. But today, everybody "wins" because they receive ribbons and medals for "participating" in the event. We certainly wouldn't want a kid to be emotionally scarred for the rest of his or her life because they "lost" at something so we just reward everyone.

Every semester at the college where I teach, students are allowed to evaluate their instructors and one of the questions asks whether or not they are treated with dignity and respect. It always reminds me of my undergraduate and graduate experiences in the classroom where respect for the student was not necessarily a teaching objective. If the student showed up for class prepared, paid attention, and participated actively, he was typically shown respect by his instructor. On the other hand, if he was frequently late for class, had excessive absences, slept in class, or came completely unprepared, he wasn't. What we seem to have forgotten somewhere in the process is that respect is EARNED, not conveyed. And I think every single one of us practices that philosophy in our daily lives; we respect those people who have earned our respect and we don't respect people who haven't. Why should we attempt to create an artificial environment in a classroom that doesn't reflect the real world?

In the real world, we're not automatically respected. In the real world, we don't always win a medal or a ribbon simply because we show up. In the real world, we're not automatically promoted, regardless of performance or lack thereof. In the real world, the things we achieve are earned, not simply handed out and I'm concerned that our school system is getting it wrong. If we're so worried about the fragile psyches of our young people that we have to constantly reward them just for breathing, what's going to happen to those psyches when they finally do get out in the real world and discover failure?

By propping them up during their formative years and exposing them constantly to rewards that are not earned, we're not eliminating disappointment and failure. We're just postponing it.