What's wrong with the Bible Bee?

More and more it comes to my attention that this is becoming a world in which everyone HAS to be exactly the same. Differences of opinion, talent, skill are just not allowed. It is happening under the premise of a movement to embrace everyone's differences, and is having the opposite affect.
We don't want to offend anyone, so we can't ever say, "This is TRUTH". We don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, so we can't have any competition (for there to be a winner, there has to be a loser, right?). We only want to play games where everyone wins!
I've seen it in the demise of track and field day, in the dumbing down of curriculums, and most recently in the elimination of the BIBLE BEE.
Two churches in our small community have recently decided that the BIBLE BEE should be done away with. One large church was using it as part of their youth group curriculum; to encourage the teens to spend time in God's Word, with trivial competition as a motivator and small prizes for those who were the most successful. The second church runs a Christian school, where the Bible Bee was a highlight of the year for the kids who are so academically inclined to spend time studying. It is an area where they can succeed.
As a sidenote, we often see that children who do well academically, often are NOT the stars on the athletic field (we all have different gifts, strengths and talents). The town where I grew up is a place where football and soccer stars are honored like royalty, but the child who worked her way to the state level of the Spelling Bee was virtually ignored.
But, what's wrong with the BIBLE BEE?
Why are churches getting rid of it?
The youth group program eliminated it, but a few kids thought it was too much effort, and 'not enough FUN'!
The school eliminated it, because it was 'too competitive'.
Is that where we are going as a nation? As a world?
I personally was and still am academically inclined, not an athlete. Programs like Young Authors, Spelling Bees, and Math Counts were MY opportunities to prove what I was good at. I thrived on academic competition, it motivated me to learn more, to put forth greater effort than that which was required to get by in day to day lessons. The chance to win, to be the best, isn't that what motivates so many of us?
Do athletes play just for the money? Just for the love of the game? If so, then why do we cancel every other television program the week of the World Series? Why do we give out Super Bowl Rings and Heisman Trophies? These items are the symbols of our success, the "thing" we can look on to remember how great it felt to WIN!
So, if the BIBLE BEE gets kids to put forth greater effort, to study more, to look deeper into God's Word, what's wrong with that? If a little competition gives kids the motivation to perhaps even open a Bible for the first time, what's wrong with that?
The kid who loses might feel bad, but my experience has been that a child who is not the winner this year, will try harder next year, and what's wrong with that?
I don't understand the movement to deny all opportunities for independent thinking and healthy competition in an effort to spare a few hurt feelings - we are denying those who would succeed academically the opportunity to do so, and we are denying those who would at least put forth some effort into the project (ie opening their Bible and reading it), the opportunity to do so.
There's nothing wrong with the Bible Bee, but there is something very wrong with what is happening to it.

Corinne Johnson is the author of Vacation Education Books, Christian unit studies based on your favorite vacation destinations. Visit us at www.vacationeducationbooks.net