Imagine it’s the end of the basketball season. There’s an award banquet and every kid got a trophy for participation. The children who worked the hardest still got the same trophy as everyone else. That would be very unfair in my opinion. Children should not be rewarded with participation trophies at the end of sports seasons. They should only receive trophies for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. One time when I was little I played basketball for a church league and I got a participation trophy and I thought it was dumb to get that just for playing. First of all, children need to learn that life isn't fair and that's ok. If bill gates makes 1 billion dollars for making a new product that doesn't mean that you will get 1 billion dollars for doing the same thing. Also if your friend gets new shoes that doesn't mean you will get new shoes.My point is that kids need to know that life is not fair. Then if kids got trophies for losing and participating they would not know that life is not fair. …show more content…
Imagine getting a trophy every time you played a sport. You would not know the value of winning and losing, right? If you had the worst basketball team in the league and your record was 0-20 and the top 3 teams were 20-0,18-2 and 16-4 and you still got the same trophy as the top 3 teams, you wouldn't think it was important if you won or lost. This does not connect to the real world. If you don't succeed in your business you won't get as good money than if you succeed. That's why children should learn the importance of winning and
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
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.
Some people may argue that if everyone gets a trophy, everyone will be happy. That might be an understandable concern, however, according to people on blog.sportssignup.com, “By acknowledging everyone with the same award we’re actually celebrating no one and even undermining the efforts of those who really deserve to be recognized.” Similarly, it makes the kids who work really hard feel like there efforts were equal or worse than the efforts of those who do not try hard and do not work hard. On the other hand, if everyone gets a trophy than winners are no longer special. Kids should play sports because they enjoy playing them, not because they want a trophy. It is like one of those arcade games at the movie theater, you keep playing until you win. Another way to say this is, sports were made because they wanted to let people have fun and try to compete, but now sports is turning into the concept of everyone is a winner. Kids and adults feel like we are ruining what sports are supposed to be. In summary, many citizens think that kids should not get trophies for participation because only kids who work hard deserve
John Darns worked hard his entire soccer season for his trophy; he attended every practice, went beyond the required off season training, and always left the field knowing he left everything he possessed on there. With grass stains in his shorts and bloody scrapes on his knees, he was finally rewarded with the championship trophy, that beautiful two feet tall golden trophy with a man on top in the middle of kicking what would be a perfect goal. Yes, he wore that orange tiger on his jersey well; he truly deserved that trophy. Yet a few feet away, are The Black Hawks, the team who lost every game the entire season, getting an almost identical trophy for participating in the league. They did not work as hard: they practiced less than half as much as John’s team, and they are rewarded almost equally to make sure everyone feels like a winner. The concept that every child deserves a blue ribbon or a trophy for trying their best plagues generation Y every day of their young lives.
“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.
Today, many sports teams hand out awards to everyone who participated. This is said to encourage participation but an outcome of this is that it devalues the talented kids’ awards, and gives no incentive for other players to try hard which does a poor job of preparing our children for the real world.
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
Naturally, some children are better at sports than others. On a team which does not give out participation trophies, but gives out trophies for hitting the farthest or running the fastest, the child who does not fall into any of those categories can be left feeling useless and inadequate. A child who gives 100% and dosent get rewarded for it is more likely to give up the sport completely than if he were to be given a trophy for engaging and participating. Also, when every child receives a trophy, it can be used to teach the importance of teamwork and the necessity of every individual on a team, not just the talented ones. Every child receiving a participation trophy weaves a common thread throughout the team to hold it together.
Have you ever known the feeling of seeing all of your friends getting trophies and not you? A feeling of being left out is one of the effects of not giving children participation trophies. Children should get participation trophies to boost team and self-moral.
Being rewarded for their mistakes is going to get them nowhere in life that is like working somewhere and them paying you to mess up, or for not being able to do your job right. A lot of kids these days are mentally soft and they cannot really take anyone yelling at them so that is another reason why some kids do not want to play sports because of the coaches. Most coaches are volunteer coaches because their kids play on the team, so that sets a fell back because “special treatment.” Trophies are handed out like candy these days, it does not matter who you are or how you
I understand that the younger aged children get upset when they see other people with trophies. Children need to learn from a young age that they need to work for what they want. When they get older, people aren't going to just hand them everything. Also, some say that Elementary aged kids should get participation trophies because it will encourage them to do sports in high school. Some
Allow us to consider the ramifications of the so-called participation trophy culture, which is a direct response to never wanting kids to feel like anything less than a success. When children are protected from failure, two things occur. They never learn to win on their own, but, more importantly, they also never learn to cope with defeat. The natural consequence of this is that young adults are unaccustomed to failure and feel entitled in life, be it to money, food, or a high-paying job. Wants become needs, and needs become the responsibility of the state. Not every endeavor is a success. That is a fact of life, but we are not preparing young adults to face that truth. And when failure inevitably does occur due to underdeveloped skills, these young adults fall into depression or
Kids shouldn’t just receive awards for showing up to a practice or a game. They should although receive something, but the winners should be noticed and recognized by something more than a participation trophy. The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place should get a trophy saying 1st, 2nd, and 3rd but the other players should get like a certificate. “You have to win to get a trophy.” If you don’t give them anything for showing up it might make them feel bad about themselves. They might not want to show up anymore either. Kids will try harder to get awards for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd if there aren’t awards for just showing up. (Berdan, Betty)
Should children receive an award for simply participating? Or should only the kids that do something excessive receive an award? Throughout history, society has altered their trophy giving policies. In America, rewarding all younger students in activities, has become tradition. At the moment, if you show up to an event, everyone earns an award; some believe it makes it fair if every young person achieves an award. On the contrary, other individuals think if everyone is granted with an accolade, even the kids that didn't do much, it will make them assume that they don’t have to work hard. Securing an award, may feel extravagant, however, giving an award to everyone, simply because they participate, is unacceptable.
Many life lessons can be taught through sports. Children can learn the importance of work ethic, working with others, perseverance, and the list goes on. There are studies that have shown that kids who are involved in athletics are more successful in the business world. It is only when parents turn the sporting events into an ultra-competitive requirement for their child that it can become detrimental. The lessons that sports teach kids about real life is one of the greatest benefits that can be gained from sports. Because so much can be learned through sports we need to make sure that we put focus on teaching lessons through sports rather than making it all about winning. It is a sad when parents turn a great beneficial thing into something that can be harmful for their children.