Throughout the course of our lives, people tell us we are winners, we are special, we are one-of-a-kind, we will amount to something, or, if we put our minds to it, we can achieve anything.

In elementary school we played sports like kickball, basketball, four square and  tag. There were always winners and there were always losers. We learned from games we lost and boosted our egos with the games we won.

We didn’t get ribbons for getting last place, and we didn’t get congratulations for participating.

Most of us grew up (or are growing up) to be well-rounded individuals.

Unfortunately, more and more often, kids are being congratulated for their failures.

How is a person supposed to learn from his mistakes and failures if he is congratulated for not making the cut?

Sugarcoating a mistake isn’t constructive for anyone. It allows for the child or teenager to believe that it is totally okay to fail or to make a mistake over and over again.They also learn it is acceptable to bend the rules because they “are special and one-of-a-kind.”

Today’s youth is rewarded for their mistakes with gold stars and giggles instead of consequences and tough love.

Those children eventually get to college and don’t understand why they didn’t pass a class after they turned in every paper a week late.

It’s a reality check for a lot of students who were fed with the golden success spoon for the greater part of their lives.

Fortunately, many of the departments on campus are implementing more rigid requirements for passing classes and for graduating.

This, in turn, is weeding out the students who can’t handle, or are not ready to handle, college in the first place.

MSU departments are tightening their graduation requirements, trying to prepare students for the ‘real world’ they are to face after graduation.

When students walk off this campus for, possibly, the last time, they step into the world – where performance and financial gain is everything.

Of course, the harsh society outside of college isn’t something that one can be fully prepared for, but starting from a fairly young age it’s pretty simple to begin preparing and developing a tough skin.

Tough skin? Yes!

That means being aware that if you screw up, there will be consequences.

It means knowing that you’ll lose your job if you aren’t paying attention, or realizing that in business, it’s about success, not fairness.

It’s not all gold stars and giggles in the real world.

So why aren’t teachers, parents, and schools preparing elementary, middle and high school students for the real world?

No one died from not getting a ribbon after he placed last in a spelling bee. So why are kids getting awards for it?

It’s as though sugarcoating the fact that you didn’t win is going to make you do better the next time.

In my opinion, it’s not.

Knowing that you have something to get better at and strive for is going to help you succeed. Pretending that being last pick for the kickball team is okay won’t get you picked first the next time around. It’s time to buck up and face reality. Without competition, without challenges, and without realizing and calling out mistakes, no one wins.

The world of education needs to prepare students for a society where mistakes aren’t just boo-boos and golden stars aren’t given out for incorrect answers.

Fortunately, MSU is starting to step up to the plate, insisting on more demanding guidelines.

Now educators of years K-12 need to quit teaching ‘life is just full of fluffy bunnies and rainbows.’ Because it’s not!

Children can get last place and not be awarded a medal. Teenagers should be punished in some way when skipping a class. Trust me. They will survive.

Building a tough skin makes it easier to demand excellence, why do it later rather than sooner?