in response to the above post about what to do with kids that just "get by"....
i think that these days, we reward children too much. everyone is afraid of hurting someones feelings. my opinion, if you didn't place in the top three, try harder next time. it's not that the child has failed, it's just that some kids try harder, or have more help from their parents.
to encourage you children to do their best is the key i think. rewarding kids too much gives them a false sense of accomplishment. and that can be a dangerous thing when they get older and start to compete with truly hard working people. i guess it's a matter of judging the child's ability and seeing how to motivate them. with me, it was fear. my mother was a school teacher and she insisted that i get good grades. and really, up until my senior year of high school, i had never earned less than a "B" in classes. college was a bit different, but..... anyways, i guess you could take the darwinian approach and say, "treat kids equally and let society sort them out." hard to say really.
jason