WHile I think the concept is stupid, I also don't think it really matters to an overwhelming majority of kids. My elementary school was into the bullshit playing=victory mentallity as well. In gym class, our aim was still to kick the shit out of each other. And we always had the occasional fat kid with all the athletic ability of Manuel Uribe who'd say, "We weren't keeping score!", when the guys who owned him celebrated their victory, in an attempt to devalue their achievement to make himself feel better, to which just about alll of us would simply respond, "Maybe YOU weren't." WE still understood the concept, and thought the gym teacher was stupid for not keeping score and discouraging us from celebrating victory when we earned it.

I was a fat kid, I had flat feet and severe asthma attacks all the time, I ran slower than molasses in an igloo, and I was still one of the most competative people in my class. I knew I couldn't shoot a basketball to save my life, and any attempt at doing so would be handing the ball to the other team, so I didn't shoot. I got the ball and gave it to someone who could. People still picked me for their team over more athletic kids, because I knew my limits and how to be a valuable player in spite of them. Dodgeball was probably my favorite game at the time. In spite of my lame physique, I still kicked ass at it. I wasn't the kid hiding in back, I was front and center keeping a ball as a shield and nailing anybody too busy to catch. I was usually one of the first people picked for a team in dodgeball. Encouraging victory doesn't demand that all kid be perfect athletes. Just that they strive to overcome their own limitations to achieve a worthwhile goal. If you lost anyways, you came up with a better plan for the next game and tried harder. That's life. In the real world, you don't get a high salary for showing up to work, you get a high salary for doing your job well, and a higher salary for doing it better than anybody else. The world is competitive, and we all come to realize it whether we've been thrown praise for losing at T-ball before or not.