In life, as children play sports or participate in any type of activities, they are given trophies, or awards based on their performance in those sports or activities. Those who receive awards are typically given for their stellar play in whatever sport they may be in. But, as time has gone by, more and more children have been receiving awards simply for participating in the sport, regardless of their play. Participation trophies should not be given out at all whatsoever, as it takes away from the true value of trophies and would diminish the number of children who truly deserve trophies. If play were to continue to go on like this, then the value of receiving trophies or awards in sports would decline, and their meanings would be stripped …show more content…
If participation trophies were to be pushed more and more, it would give no incentive for kids to push and work harder, as most of them would be satisfied with just a trophy and give them a mindset that they are winners too, which would take away from the real winners. In paragraph 2 of the passage “Participation Trophies Send a Dangerous Message” by Betty Berden, she says “When awards are handed out like candy to every child who participates, it diminishes in value. If every soccer player receives a trophy for merely showing up to practice and playing in games, the truly exceptional players are slighted. The same applies to all teams. Regardless of individual effort or superior skills, all who participate receive equal acknowledgement.” What Berden is saying is that the more participation awards are handed out, the more the real trophies lose their value, and when the real trophies mean little to nothing, then the players who receive them will also feel like they mean little to nothing as well. It promotes a culture that uplifts one group, but downplays another alongside it, which isn’t ideal whatsoever.
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.
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
Which she said just before finishing her article off with another way of showing who participated recognition instead of a trophy by saying, “Trophies should be given out for first, second and third; participation should be recognized, but celebrated with words and a pat on the back rather than a trophy.” With her point of changing the way people award children for participating, she believes that words of encouragement and recognition rather than trophies would benefit them more, rather than giving them a false sense of accomplishment. In the article written by Parker Abate, “In Youth Sports, Participation Trophies
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.
Rewards and trophies should only go to the children who are doing something and making themselves better at what they are passionate about doing.” Trophies used to be awarded only to winners but are now little more than party favor Reminders of an experience, not token of true achievement when awards are handed out like candy to every child who participates, they diminish in value.” Children just getting Participation trophies will make the other children that are taking the sport seriously look like they are doing nothing, also it makes the coaches look like they're not good at coaches because they are not good at coaching. the children that have the trophy will get more attention than the rest of the children. The children should get trophies, but they should not get them before the winners, the trophies should be given out last so their other kids can be honored before the others and then our trophies should be given to them.”
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.
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.
For example, if a handful of kids worked hard to win a game while other kids on the team didn't try, they should not be rewarded for putting in zero effort. Giving out participation awards is unfair to the kids who are passionate about their sport and drive to improve. In the article “Participation Trophies Send a Powerful Message” the author makes a statement saying that when a kid watches a peer receive a trophy while they do not it can be degrading. However, this can be true, but there are alternatives to this. Instead of handing out a trophy to the participants, they can be
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.
It could be the only form of athletic recognition they ever receive.” Just because kids put in plenty of work drives them to feel like they deserve a participation trophy. This can have unfavorable effects when older because consequently it