Participation trophies have become a standard in American society. These “awards” have infiltrated and overtaken the world of youth athletics and other child-based competitions. The competition itself is healthy, but the participation trophies that accompany the contests are weighing the country down. By using the trophies, the country is exposing and compromising the immature generations. The problem lies deep within certain issues that are becoming major threats to society. Participation trophies in youth athletics are improperly advocated by parents, stall maturity and growth, and fail to prepare children for the future. If these issues are not addressed by the leading generations today, the wellbeing of the future country is at risk. Participation …show more content…
The trophies support extremely bad habits and stall the proper maturity and growth of entire generations that receive them. Cedric Moxey’s debate over the use of trophies reveals that football league officials in Keller, Texas actually felt that participation trophies “... send the wrong message and create bad habits” (Moxey 1). The point that is supposed to come of this is that in the “real world,” where competition decides and defines survival, just participating is not enough to be able to support a family or a lifestyle. The solution to this lies within the youth sports and competitions. Frank Fitzpatrick says that it is important that kids and young competitors accept a loss and see room to grow from it. By opening a young kid up to the feelings of both a win and a loss, they learn how to handle the feelings and how to build on any negative attitudes or outcomes. Life skills such as these are crucial to a child who wants to be able to live on their own in the future. Participation trophies make this sort of growth impossible for the current generations (Stein 1). Ashley Merryman, an author and journalist, said “... when children make mistakes, our job should not be to spin those losses into decorated victories” (qtd. in Fitzpatrick 1). Participation trophies do exactly this. They make a kid who did not win (and needs to accept that) feel as if everything did, in fact, go their way when it did
About one year ago, I played on a Pburg Liners basketball team. It was the championship game and we really wanted to win, but we did not play well, so as a result, we lost. After the game, our coach gave us all trophies. On the other hand , I was thinking, did we actually deserve them. Apparently, some people think that everyone should get a participation trophy. However, people strongly believe not everyone should get a trophy. People believe this because kids who only show up to some practices and do not try hard should definitely not get the same recognition as a person who shows up to all of the practices and works really hard. It teaches kids that young kids have to
I will be explaining why I think it's not ok for kids to get a participation trophy. Giving children a participation trophy in sports gives the child a false sense of confidence and will affect them in the future if they go into pro sports, they won't be able to handle a loss.
First, it teaches young athletes you need to earn rewards. In the article “Should Young Athletes get Participation Trophies” by A. Pawlowski it states, “If everyone gets a trophy it would not teach kids to earn or strive for something.” ( Today.com Nov. 2013) In another part of this article it
Our society has shifted its beliefs in how we should treat competition in young people. The question is asked, should all kids get a participation trophy? As it may seem to be an unanswerable question, it honestly isn’t. Thought that the participation trophies may send the message that “coaches” value the kids’ efforts despite their abilities, trophies do not need to be given out. Your words mean just as much when you remind an athlete that you value them in more ways than one. Some may think trophies are a great idea because it shows that everyone’s a “winner.” However, I disagree with that idea. I believe that kids should know that they need to work their hardest in order to be rewarded and understand that not
Every kid on the football field has a trophy. Even the kids who are on the losing team. Kids’ and parents’ faces are bright with smiles, and laughter echoes throughout the field. Kids are showing off their miny trophies, each with a bronze football on them. No one is paying attention to the two feet tall, gold, first place trophy that is in the winning team’s coach’s hand. Everybody is focused on the miniature trophies. Why are these trophies so special? These are participation trophies. Every kid gets one just for participatcuing in a game. Kids started getting participation trophies in the 20th Century. They got the trophies to feel more confident about themselves. Trophies should not be given to every kid because of narcissism increase,
Handing out participation trophies does not teach kids about the real world. O’Sullivan says, “We reward them for having a parent capable of registering them for a sport.” Participation trophies are for registering and showing up the day they hand out trophies, they are not for hard
Participation trophies are awards handed out for simply participating in an athletic event or program. These trophies are very common in youth athletics across the country and their effects on children have been debated for years. In many areas around the country, teams hand out thousands of trophies to children, and many of the children will receive more than one particiation trophy (Merryman). Arguments have been formed from both sides of these trophies and researchers have found beneficial and harmful effects on young athletes when given participation trophies. Researchers have found that “when living rooms are filled with participation trophies, it’s part of a larger cultural message: to succeed, you just have to show up”
Todays generation of kids have been crafted to expect praise for everyday tasks and have become entitled all because of something many people thought was harmless, participation trophies. If you ask anyone, they have probably recieved a participation trophy at least once in their life and some will think it was a good thing, but others may beg to differ. In my opinion participation trophies are a bad tool in life because it goes along and is a big part of the we are all winners concept. Trophies should be a symbol of accomplishing something not a symbol of participation in an activity and a few people have written about their opinion about this situation varying from critical writers, to college athletes from around the country here are
The maxim “trying is the important thing” will only lead to laziness and complacency in life. Trying is very important in being successful, but there are many more important things that are necessary for success. Parents try to boost their children’s self-esteem and make their children happy by giving them participation medals, but this is actually counter-productive. Larger and larger amounts of medals and trophies are given for increasingly smaller achievements, and this “everybody’s a winner” mentality can make children grow up to expect success and recognition for a mediocre performance. Children may be led to underachieve and not try their best, which may lead to idleness and lack of achievement in the truly competitive environment of
Lisa is part of the 'for' group when it comes to this debate, Vivian is part of the 'against' group. In Lisa's article one can clearly see that she is a firm believer that children now can benefit from receiving participation trophies. She states that trophies will motivate "kids to participate in sports, to learn to improve their skills, to help others, to work hard and make a contribution to the team. " She is not really concerned or mentions these kids and how they may be in the future. Vivian on the other is worried that if we keep handing out participation trophies to children, we are going to raise a bunch of young adults who cannot handle losing in the real world.
“If everyone is special, no one is. If everyone gets a trophy, trophies become meaningless.” This was a quote said by David McCullough Jr. in his famous You’re Not Special speech. This quote is very true about the great participation trophy debate. This debate has been going on for a long time and has still not been settled. While participation trophies help boost the confidence of non-winners, participation trophies are useless because no one will be motivated to get better of everyone has trophies and trophies cost a lot of money to make.
Most kids playing sports get lots of trophies. But do those trophies mean something or are they just for playing the sport? Most participation trophies are given out to the losing teams for just playing the sports, they don't even have to try. How does this affect the rest of their lives? Do these trophies ruin the thrill of winning?
We as a society now accept that everyone ought to feel good at all times, and nobody ought to be left out. We begin with the youth and everyone gets a trophy mindset. Indeed, it makes you feel incredible to get rewarded for doing something extraordinary yet in the wake of having a horrible season; a trophy simply appears to compound an already painful situation. That regardless of in the event that they win or lose in life they ought to be given a reward? That the ones who scarcely appear for practice, give wishy-washy exertion on the field and demonstrate no energy for whatever amusement they are playing ought to get a prize?
Trophies should be difficult to attain, similar to coveted positions in top companies. Childhood activities and their reward system should not only build self-esteem and confidence, they should build a competitive nature; the desire to excel. Constantly rewarding children for their elemental abilities is neither providing them the skills to deal with difficulties, nor is it teaching them how to embrace challenge. Continuous praise without constructive criticism does not prepare them to face disappointment or handle tough circumstances in life or how to adapt and overcome. We are not instilling the importance of applying themselves to strive for what they want in life.
When children are starting out in sports and learning the basics, the pressure of winning isn’t so important; therefore, presenting awards at this time could be more effective. Don’t get me wrong, trophies are a great form of reward and can bring much enjoyment and reassurance, particularly in the self-esteem of a young child. They say children benefit from trophies because it boosts their self-confidence and it makes them more likely to return to sports the next season, in addition to being healthier and doing better in school. However, self-worth needs to be shown that it doesn’t come in the form of a trophy, but by our actions with our peers and strengths that may not even be sport related.