The solution is to encourage them to try out for competitive teams, too. It's IMO not a good solution for some children to constantly face rejection, whether that's the reality of their adult future or not. Having them enter school art competitions, or trying out for school plays is good. Signing them up for a soccer team where everyone gets a trophy at the same time is good, too.

No Tears, No Anger, Cause for Concern?
 

Last year, the daughter of a very old friend of mine was released from recruitment early at a competitive rush.

The young woman might have taken the cut too well. There were no tears, no anger, not even a loud silence. Her feeling was "hey, if no chapter wants me, that's their loss, not mine."

My friend was a bit surprised by her attitude. He and his ex-wife was expecting tears and/or rage. Now, he is not sure if his daughter is wise way beyond her years or has an ego the size of Brazil.

Tears, he said, he could deal with. A mature teenager isn't discussed in the daddy handbook.

He probably didn't force the choir to accept a tone deaf kid with no rhythm (that would have been me as a child) or the academic team to take any dumb kids in his quest for fairness.

Also, doesn't this make it even worse for the only 2 who are rejected. If you'd taken 12, there would at least have been 5 that didn't make the cut. Now you've really singled out the extra pathetic. (Not you personally, but you know...)

Whoo boy, there definitely are choirs that are forced to take everyone, even in high school. For 4th/5th grade, most of them are forced to take everyone. Heck, in my school the kids had to participate in choir up through middle school as part of music class -- even the kids couldn't cut themselves from the choir! It is quite unusual to have competitive auditions in elementary school unless we're talking about a pre-professional, traveling choir.
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Yeah, we pretty much all had to sing in public at least once a year through 6th grade, whether we could or not, whether we liked it or not.

I kind of wonder what cheerleaders are needed for in the lower grades to begin with. Do elementary schools have interscholastic sports now?

My elementary school had cheerleading. I'm from an area where cheerleading was big, and it was just like any other rec league sport. They weren't linked to any other rec league sport, but they performed at DARE assemblies, etc. I think it was more a way to get kids to exercise who normally wouldn't be.

Depends on the school. I started cheering in 3rd grade, and was cheering for the basketball team of the same age level. It was a private school, though, and I know the public schools in the area didn't have sports teams at that age level.