Kids Should Not Win Without Effort

A for Effort?

American children today are being taught that they do not need to put in effort to gain reward. Sport leagues today dish out participation awards to everyone who’s parents paid for them to be on a team. The kids who put in effort and really try to help their team are rewarded the same as the kids who do not come to practice. Kids should not be given participation awards because these tokens of attendance demonstrate false principals that you can win without effort, they destroy a team’s motivation to fight until they succeed and deflate the real winner’s sense of achievement. Participation awards are given to everybody, even those who do not attend practices, do not bother to warm up with the team, and hog the ball on the field.

“The problem isn’t the positive reinforcement kids get nowadays, but rather the failure to distinguish the accomplishments that deserve it, from those that don’t.” (Diller). The excessive trophies that are awarded make young athletes overestimate themselves. After they graduate from elementary school, children become overly disappointed by the lack of trophies that they are earning. “Noreen Malone writes how today’s twenty-somethings are struggling in the cold world after enjoying childhoods filled with warmth and support” (Diller). If people spend their childhoods being too spoiled in activities, then they become used to it and expect to be spoiled be showing up. They will not win good grades for showing up to class or be paid for showing up to work. Although it may feel good at the time, it will not pay off. Supporters of participation awards say that children need to be told they're the best at a young age. “There is a time and a place to sort the weak from the strong, but it is not before they grow into their bodies and their minds and their interests” (Heffernan). While adolescents should all be welcomed and encouraged into new activities, they should not be given false hopes that they can win at anything they want to try. Family and friends are good

While an award makes the losers feel good, the winners do not feel as though they have improved. An article quotes Tom Farrey, saying “‘From ages 0 to 12, the goal is to help kids fall in love with the sports, to want to come back the next year, to want to go into the backyard and improve their technique’” (Heffernan). If the winners win but find themselves at the same place on the podium as the team who they just beat, they are not going to feel as though they are improving. They will become frustrated and they may even lose their passion for their sport. “‘No,’ says Stanford psychology professor Carol Dweck. ‘Kids should not be given trophies simply for participating’” (Turner). Giving all players and teams an award holds back the winners, when actually the winners should be soaring into the sky. To hold back winners demotivates them and demoralizes them. They will wonder what the point of trying is, if everybody finishes with the same result. A common thought for the defense of participation awards is that they are just pieces of metal or plastic, they are the same as a gold trophy, and that they will all be forgotten anyway. “Outside of collecting dust and decorating childhood rooms, have these plaques and trophies served any real purpose?” (Diller). The answer is no. Participation awards suck the meaning out of real awards that were earned by a hard working