Everyone Gets A Trophys Analysis

560 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The negatives of a participation trophy

In almost everything we do, there is a winner and a loser, but society seems to think that giving out participation trophies is a great idea, even though it’s a flawed way of rewarding. In competitive activities, trophies are the reward for putting in the hard work into whatever you’re competing for and placing first, second, or third. The concept of “everyone gets a trophy,” whether you win or lose, is an insult for the victor... A trophy for everyone is not the best way to create a message that will help improve character development and humility. Moreover, teaching this next generation to learn how to lose is very important and is not discussed enough. The message will either make or break you, but that’s a risk that must be taken to progress and better the youth. …show more content…

Losing is a vital part of our personal development during our childhood and adolescent years. Learning how to lose with humility and maturity is something that many would rather avoid, so they never take risks and rarely work hard for anything. Ultimately, this attitude will have a negative impact on your character. Giving out participation trophies hinders the character development for young kids, as it does not give them the chance to realize that they lost, and it negates an opportunity to reveal how they might deal with losing. Society may think they are protecting everyone’s feelings if we have the “everyone is a winner” mentality, while not knowing the long-term consequence to that is making kids believe later in life they will always be a winner and will be rewarded, regardless of how mediocre they are, which isn’t how the real world works. This is the impression we are placing upon them with giving out participation

Show More
Related

  • Essay On Participation Trophies

    725 Words  | 2 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Review Of Ashley Merryman's 'Losing Is Good For You'

    856 Words  | 2 Pages

    To illustrate, Ashley Merryman, the author of the article “Losing is Good for You” states, “ However, when it comes to rewards, people argue that kids must be treated identically: everyone must always win. That is misguided. And there are negative outcomes. Not for just specific children, but for society as a whole.” This explains that when kids get trophies, they think that they are always going to win, no matter how poorly they did their job. This can cause major problems in the society, such as companies not improving. In addition, Ashley Merryman also states, “ Having studied recent increases in narcissism [having an excessive interest in oneself; an over inflated ego often due to parents’ overvaluation] and entitlement among college students, she [Jean Twenge, author of Generation Me] warns 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.” This shows that even young kids are starting to be egoistic, and that can stick with them their entire life. When kids will go into the real world, it would be too late to realize that winning is not important. As a result, narcissism increases in the kids and makes them

    Read More

  • Participation Trophies Analysis

    420 Words  | 1 Pages

    It is ok for children to lose and for them to learn from it. Merryman says, “It’s teaching them it can take a long time to get good at something and that’s alright” (Merryman). Children learn from failure, it teaches them that it takes time and patience to get good at something. Merryman also says, “It’s through hard work and mistakes that we learn the most. We must focus on process and progress, not results and rewards” (Merryman). It takes hard work to win, Children should focus on getting better, not on rewards. Children need to learn that to win it takes hard work and time, they should focus on improving, not on getting participation trophies.

    Read More

  • Participation Trophies Research Paper

    1621 Words  | 4 Pages

    According to researcher and author of “Top Dog: The Science of Winning and Losing,” Ashley Merryman says “having studied recent increases in narcissism and entitlement among college students, (she) warns 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.” She also says “if children know they will automatically get an award, what is the impetus for improvement? Why bother learning problem-solving skills, when there are never obstacles to begin with?” She goes on to say handing out trophies undermines kids’ success: “The benefit of competition isn’t actually winning”. Another author says “when you’re constantly giving a kid a trophy for everything they’re doing, you’re saying, ‘I don’t care about improvement. I don’t care that you’re learning from your mistakes. All we expect is that you’re always a winner’” (Ross). These particiation trophies have many negative effects that can make these children less succesful in competitive enviornments: such as college or in the work force. It will also make them less prepared for an independent life after leaving

    Read More

  • Pros And Cons Of Participation Trophys

    557 Words  | 2 Pages

    A participation trophy can help a child's drive to improve. When a child plays a game and loses, but then watches the other team get a trophy they feel that they suck and won't try to improve. Once they get a participation trophy they make the child feel like they did good and that next time if they get better they will get a bigger trophy for winning and not losing. For instance, “Further, studies also tell us that children who participate in sports get better…”(Huffington 1). This exemplifies that children who participate feel the drive to get better at the sport. When inferring that since they participated they are getting an award if makes them feel like they did good, and then they want to get even better to get a better reward. Thus making the kids get better at the sport showing that participation trophies are beneficial to children, but there are more opportunities to show how they are

    Read More

  • Essay On Sports Participation Trophy

    726 Words  | 2 Pages

    Trophies were once infrequent in society. You would have to go to your local jewelry store and spend top dollar on a shiny piece of sterling silver or gold. Thus, you didn’t see a whole lot of children running around with new trophies every week. However, with the arrival of the 1960s, many factories that had been once used to produce military goods during WWII would now be available for mass-production consumer goods. Trophies would now be marketed and sold to coaches and athletic departments, or available at your hometown sporting goods store (Merryman). In modern day society, sports participation trophies are almost guaranteed, ensuring every child is a “winner” at the end of the day. These participation trophies are extremely harmful to our youth and should only be given out when deemed necessary.

    Read More

  • Forget Trophies Let Kids Know It's O. K To Rape Analysis

    1143 Words  | 3 Pages

    Priceman believes that participation awards will only make the nation a group of wimps if the adults make it seem as such. He also hints that competitiveness is not affected by the participation awards, but rather how they are taught to react to it determines how competitive they will become. Priceman has thoughts that lay with the idea that participation awards should not be the focus, but rather on participation as a whole and if theses awards contribute even slightly to a child's self-esteem, than the awards should continue to be granted. He however does not acknowledge Merryman's evidence that participation trophies do not benefit children with low self-esteem. With this being what the opposition to the argument Marryman, Berdan, and I

    Read More

  • Do We All Deserve Gold? Setting Kids Up To Fail By Vivian Diller

    674 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the 2011 essay “Do We All Deserve Gold? Setting Kids Up To Fail”, Vivian Diller, PhD, writes that “awards can intensify competition, impact self-esteem, get parents too involved and add tension among coaches, but they also teach kids about winning and

    Read More

  • Harrison Bergeron Book Report

    560 Words  | 2 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Participation Trophies Are A Waste Of Money Essay

    464 Words  | 1 Pages

    First of all, participation trophies can make kids feel like they are not good, or they are worthless to their team. Participation trophies let kids get rewarded for not acomplishing anything. I believe that if you want something in life you are going to have to work hard for it to achieve it. Participation trophies are a waste of money for the sports foundations providing the trophies. The money used for participation trophies could be used for the betterment of something else sports related like getting new equipment, or building a new baseball feild, or a new basketball court. The people that get participation trophies feel like they wasted their money on something that does not give them any pleasure.

    Read More

  • Essay Young Athletes Should Not Give Out Participation Trophies

    585 Words  | 2 Pages

    L. Hefferman’s article “ In Defense of Participation Trophies: Why they really do teach the right values?” it states “ An award is not really an award if everyone gets it.” (Today.com) In another article by Ashley Merryman called “Losing is Good For You” it says “Awards can be a powerful motivators but nonstop recognition does not inspire children to succeed. Instead, it can cause them to underachieve.” (New York Times Sept. 2013) It is clear, by not giving participation awards it make the children who do get awarded feel more special than if everyone gets one. Obviously, not giving participation awards to everyone gives more of a boost of self-esteem to the people who do get

    Read More

  • Essay On Children Should Not Be Allowed In Sports

    719 Words  | 2 Pages

    Many people that have gotten participation trophies feel cheated when they aren’t recognized for their accomplishments. This mindset, that you will be rewarded for all accomplishments, is a stark difference from the real world. When you get a job, you will not be rewarded just for showing up. Because we continue to keep this from our children, we are robbing them from learning about what the real world is like.

    Read More

  • Awarding Participation Trophies For Children

    1151 Words  | 3 Pages

    Determining whether to award participation trophies or not is a controversial issue in America today. Surprisingly, most people are in favor of not awarding participation trophies to children because of the negative outcomes. A solution that is suggested to solving the problem is to ensure both the winning and losing team a trophy. Conversely, when both teams receive a trophy this defeats the purpose of even playing the game. Children are smart enough to know if they won or lost a game, and by letting each team receive a trophy it creates confusion for children. If a child is rewarded with a plaque after a loss, this could cause confusion for a child because he or she might not understand the purpose of the plaque. Several children understand that while competing there is only one true winner, and by giving both teams awards this creates a false sense of how sports actually maneuver. As children grow old enough to play for their school’s team, they will quickly learn that only teams who win are awarded trophies. Teaching children how a sport operates at a young age could help children comprehend sports better and sooner. Children should not be given participation trophies because the winning effort should be awarded, each sport is a competition, and children deserve proper feedback.

    Read More

  • 'Forget Trophies, Let Kids Know O. K. To Lose'

    1571 Words  | 4 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Participation Awards Essay

    789 Words  | 2 Pages

    There are many heated debates raging in modern day America, but what is perhaps the most underrated of these debates is the topic of participation awards. Not only these awards, but more so what they represent in handouts, for lack of a better term, is what makes this such a pertinent topic. I agree, perhaps even more strongly, with Kevin Sherrington’s views expressed in his article. The overuse of participation awards amongst todays youth sports are in fact detrimental to their competitive spirit, therefore harmful to their overall ambition. Kevin Sherrington writes a very interesting article, “Kids Need to Earn Hardware,” on the uniquely timely debate of the value of participation awards.

    Read More

More about Everyone Gets A Trophys Analysis

Open Document