I'm a firm believer in a "Challenge"..... I believe that nothing that someone else has done is unattainable, I believe that anything anyone else has done can be done better, and I also believe that this belief must be passed on to our children, otherwise we will end up like every other nation that challenges were unfair and that rewarding excellence only hurts those who couldn't meet the challenge.
I firmly believe that when Excellence is no longer rewarded, Excellence will no longer exist!!!
How true Mike it is something that the western world is loosing and we must not let it happen.
This is one of the reasons I am in favour of the 11plus in the UK when children are selected to go to either secondary school or the more academically minded grammar schools.
It gives them that competitiveness at crucial time in their development which IMHO will remain with them throughout their lives and enable those who have it to achieve in the future to suddenly have to do it at 16 or 18 is too late IMHO.