Imagine finishing in second place or not even making it into the quarterfinals, and then someone is handing out trophies to everyone anyway. This would give these people the wrong idea that they don’t need to win, since they’ll get rewarded either way. In the article, “Participation Trophies Send a Dangerous Message” by Betty Berden, she lists the cons of distributing participation trophies to younger people such as reducing competition, making winning less important, and giving off the misunderstanding that everyone is a winner. These are important factors to consider when deciding if it should be practiced. But according to some people, the only definitive positive is that handing out these awards grants a boost in self-esteem for younger …show more content…
Previously mentioned, participation awards being handed out to everyone cause winnings to diminish in value. The entire point of winning a tournament or any competition is to be rewarded with a trophy or award that is tangible to a specific person. If everybody were to receive a trophy regardless of the circumstances, this would reduce the incentive for winning. To put into perspective, these participation trophies are being “handed out like candy to every child” and as such it causes kids to not hold any attachment to the trophy because it is not special. They will lose admiration for a trophy; it will not evoke any memorable moments or major accomplishments because it is just a useless trophy for losers. Since every competitor receives awards whether they win or lose, it “makes winning not as important.” As such, this practice can be very damaging to the competitive aspect of these youth tournaments. Furthermore, these prizes mislead younger competitors into thinking they are also winners despite being losers. Some …show more content…
Kids need to compete and aim for first place, and when they lose, they must hold accountability. This is a natural element everywhere in the world because competition is what drives people to surpass and innovate. Without an incentive for competition, evolution will come to a halt. If the competitive nature were to be removed, it would be the same as robbing the kids of the brighter future they would have achieved by overcoming obstacles. Even though “self-esteem is a big part of one’s childhood”, kids should also be taught to perform under conditions where they are not always confident or energetic. During later stages of life, people don’t always operate at a hundred percent every day, and it is not expected of them either. Despite this, people still get up and start their shift or they get up and head to early morning classes. Emotions should not be a factor that determines how a person performs, and the youth should be taught this earlier on to prevent a future wall. In addition to this, people also argue that participation trophies are given out as if it’s “acknowledging their effort”, and it is supposed to make kids feel like they haven’t done this all for nothing. This logic is flawed because even if someone attended university for ten plus years and obtained a master’s degree, they
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
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,
Some argue that participation trophies are going to be the downfall of society and human life in general. That is not the case but, there are many downsides of these awards, in this essay a few of these will be brought to attention. Participation trophies do not teach children valuable lessons.
Explanation 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.
“Today on Channel 4 News a child has just committed suicide for not getting a trophy in his favorite sport, soccer. The child had just played a soccer game the day before trying his hardest to win and be the best like everybody else. When his team got beat 8-0 he was already down in the dumps, but then the soccer tournament did not give trophies to the 6 year olds who lost making them feel like total losers. This child was so sad that he was taking a bath and decided to breathe water for 3 minutes rendering him dead,” a statement made by a local newscaster. The debate for whether participation trophies are needed has gone on for many years among parents, and sports/hobby officials. Opposers of the participation trophies believe that they are not needed among children and should be eliminated completely. On the contrary proponents of the participation trophies believe that they help children in many ways and should be kept.
What exactly is the point of receiving a participation trophy and is there really a point? Getting a participation trophy provides a false sense of winning and accomplishment in children that can be ridiculously hard to break. In the article, “Participation Trophies Send a Dangerous Message,” written by Betty Berden. The article elaborates on why children should not be able to receive a participation trophy and the dangers that come with receiving trophies that children did not win, but some disagree. Parker Abate is one of the opposites, Abate wrote an article named, “In Youth Sports, Participation Trophies Send a Powerful Message,” explaining why children should be getting participation trophies rather than not.
Children are very spoiled so they will think everything will come easy but in life everything is hard. Participation Trophies Send a Dangerous Message by Betty Berden. The author says how the children should not just receive participation reward and everyone should have to work hard, and the people who work hard should get trophies, after that that’s when the participation trophies get passed out. Also, In Youth Sports, Participation Trophies Send a Powerful Message by Parker Abate, it’s letting us know why children should participate because they have learned a lot and might not ever play again so they should have memories.
Imagine a child on a sports team. The kid scored the most goals, yet their team got praised and awarded instead of the kid’s effort being acknowledged on their own. Obviously, the child is upset because they feel like they did most of the work. This feeling of unfairness is present in modern times through the handing out of participation awards to children. In the passages “Participation Trophies Send a Dangerous Message” by Betty Berden and “In Youth Sports, Participation Trophies Send a Powerful Message” by Parker Abate, both authors argue whether children should be given participation trophies or not.
Why Participation Trophies Shouldn’t Exist? Back when people were children, there were times when they would receive trophies for participating in an activity over receiving the trophy as a reward for accomplishment; The times when your team would win a trophy whether you won or lost. People believe these trophies should be won only by the team or person that rightfully won; other people believe these trophies should be won no matter what.
Getting participation trophies has become a very controversial topic in sports. Many parents think that their kids should be getting participation trophies, while it could be nice for kids to get them, there are many reasons why we should reconsider giving participation trophies. We shouldn't be giving out trophies to kids who don't show up for games or help the team out. Trophies are meant to be given to the kids who have put exceptional effort into their sport and who have made many achievements. on the other hand, giving trophies to kids who haven't done their best and haven't put in all their effort is taking away the value of why we give trophies.
In the passages, “Participation Trophies Send a Dangerous Message,” and “Participation Trophies Send a Powerful Message,” they both discuss the effects on commending children. One passage discusses the harms of over-praising, which could lead to someone making a negligible effort for equal acknowledgment. While the other passage talks about the importance of rewarding to induce a child’s self-confidence. First, the author talks about the importance of building a child’s self-esteem. It is fundamental to instill self-esteem in your youth so they can feel important and part of something.
CNN Newsource Sales Inc. A news channel for everyone, also touches on this topic by putting in one of their articles, “children whose parents overvalued them were more likely to develop narcissistic traits, such as superiority and entitlement -- two qualities that aren't necessarily going to benefit our kids when the going gets rough.” This means that participation trophies are causing bad traits in children like entitlement and narcissism that you would not want having. The. In the same article, CNN Newsource goes deeper into this topic and states that, "If you tell a kid they're wonderful and they believe you, then it just confirms their belief and that's not about healthy self-esteem, that's about
This is supported by Lisa Heffernan, who argues that participation trophies "remind kids that we value their effort" and help teach kids that "showing up for practice, learning the rules and rituals of the game and working hard" is really what's most important to take away from sports (Source 3). This is a great lesson to teach kids through sports, however, there are other ways we can teach this lesson. We can praise them for their schoolwork through academic awards, praise their character through complimenting their actions, or even hand out awards to celebrate "improvement or team spirit" (Source 1). Either way, trophies or awards should be handed out based on accomplishment and not simply on showing up. This idea is supported by Stanford researcher, Carol Dweck, who claims too much praise, including participation trophies, can lead to developing kids that are less resilient to challenges later in life (Source 4).
"I'm sorry that I'm not sorry for believing that everything in life should be earned and I'm not about to raise two boys to be men by making them believe that they are entitled to something because they tried their best...'cause sometimes your best is not enough," linebacker for the Pittsburg Steelers James Harrison (Kozicka). Ever since competitions have existed, prizes have always been given out; the winner receives the big award, while the losers receive a participation award. Why does it seem that there is a fear of sending home a child "empty handed."(Wandschneider)? Although there are some benefits to children receiving participation trophies, they are greatly outweighed by the negative aspects.