There is an epidemic spreading through America’s younger generations. It is the idea that everyone deserves a pat on the back — everyone deserves a trophy for participating, no matter how poorly he or she played.

At a Monday presentation at Beaufort County Community College, award-winning educator Ron Clark spoke on this point. According to Clark, this philosophy only works to make children ill prepared for the world, and in the case of education, it leads to the “dumbing down” of curriculum. An emphasis on what scores look good on paper becomes more important, rather than if a student is being pushed forward and challenged.

It may sound harsh, but Clark is exactly right.

The state of education in North Carolina is clearly in decline, and that can largely be attributed to this “soft” culture. No, a child cannot succeed at everything. And yes, there will likely be someone better at a particular activity than that child.

That is no cause for hurt feelings. Simply put, that is life. Coddling young people does not protect them; it actually does them a disservice in the long run.

Paraphrasing Clark, it should be the MVP who receives a trophy, not every single player on the team and not those who were benched all season.

In the education system, school officials seem to be more concerned with how a district or state looks as numbers on a page, instead of being concerned about the level of academia.

Officials have unfortunately allowed this pressure to trickle down to individual schools. Should a teacher choose teaching to a test, or teaching to challenge students, possibly hurting multiple-choice scores? For many state- and federal-level administrators, the answer is to teach to the test.

Beaufort County has many gifted educators, but they cannot properly do their job if subjected to shortsighted restrictions and guidelines.

There is no excuse to not be held to a high standard. If students are pushed hard now, they will grow into intelligent adults, ready to take America into the future.

This “brain trust,” as Clark calls it, is something this county, this state and this country cannot do without.