Children are often encouraged to try their best and work hard for their achievements when doing things like playing sports. Every parent wants their child to be the best and be recognized for doing a good job, especially if they are the best at it. But is giving out trophies to everyone essential in encouragement or should only the winners receive the gold? These two authors discuss when it is appropriate to give children trophies and when it is not. Author number ones’ position on the matter of rewarding children with a trophy if they have not earned it is that if you hand a child something that they have not earned they will expect things and not appreciate the value of them later. “Perhaps if we offered the gold, silver and bronze …show more content…
Children should not take things for granted and earning what they have is essential to taking care of themselves later in life when they are adults. This author believes that children who win and earn things should be recognized and not just seen as equal with the other children “For me, the problem isn't the profusion of positive reinforcement kids get nowadays, but rather the failure to distinguish the accomplishments that deserve it, from those that don't (Diller Pg. 2).” Author number two thinks that it is important to encourage kids to be a part of activities like sports and give them self-confidence. A part of doing this is giving children trophies even if it’s not for just winning but being an active part of the team. “We want kids to participate in sports, to learn to improve their skills, to help others, to work hard and contribute to the team (Heffernan Pg2).”
Author number one thinks that the only way to get a trophy is to earn it and author two thinks that trophies can be encouraging and help kids get confidence and get better. Author one doesn’t want kids to be rewarded for what they don’t earn. Author two doesn’t think that kids should have to be winners to be rewarded. Just because a child does not win does not mean they did not do a good job and you don’t want them to be discouraged from continuing in their goals and playing
Trophies for all convey an inaccurate and potentially dangerous life message for kids. It would be pointless if every kid got a reward for something they did not work for, and for kids to just come to games and meets to not do anything and get a reward. It is unfair to the kids that deserve it, but as Berden says, “WE are all winners.” This message is repeated at the end of each sports season, year after year, and is only reinforced by the collection of trophies that continue to pile up. “We begin to expect awards and praise for just showing up to class, practice, after school jobs leaving woefully unprepared is a winner as Berden says.”
Additionally, participation in trophies leads to a bad message about life. After every event, people always say “we are all winners,” but are all people always winners? This is the message that a participation trophy portrays to a child, that should not be portrayed. Children will “begin to expect awards and praise for just showing up,” and children should be able to know what really happens in the real world. In reality, “not everyone is a winner,” and people do not always receive an award for participating in things that they are supposed to do.
First, I do not think kids should get a trophy for just participating because it can send a misunderstood message. For example, the article "Should Everyone Get A Trophy?" States,"
One reason kids should not get trophies is because some kids. Some times dont play on the field. “If kids keep getting trophies then the trophies can lose their meaning.” Only the kids that actually work for trophies should receive them. “Trophies are not an effective way to motivate players.” this explains that kids need a place on the field. This shows that kids should have a place on the field and not get trophies for nothing.
In the article “Dangers of an ‘everyone gets a trophy’ culture?” Ashley Merryman interviews thirty seven children to see what they think about participation trophies. One kid, Levey Friedman, said to Ashley Merryman “Well, I kind of purposely played in this esiar one because I knew I would win and now I don’t really count that as a real victory because I went in and I knew it was below my level.” In other words Levey Friedman only played on the lower level sports team to win. One year when I played soccer we only won one out of thirteen games. At the end of the year we got our trophies and awards and now every time I see the soccer trophy it just reminds me of how bad our team was and how bad we did that season. Kids know when a sport is below their level so it's dangerous to think that everyone's a
I agree with the fact of all kids should be given trophies. I say this because if all kids are given 1 trophy that is exactly the same with everybody on the team, this way they wouldn’t feel hurt if they weren’t given a trophy. Kids that worked hard could more rewarded individually, thus showing kids that if they want a special reward they have to work hard for it so they can be successful. I think this will help kids prepare for the future and will spare any unnecessary tears.
The first reason why children should not be given trophies, is that they will not be ready for the harsh reality of the world. They will think everything will be handed to them if they just participate in an activity. In the future, they won’t work hard enough to earn awards, because they will think they can get by with little effort. Their work in the future will lack quality and quantity, since their thinking has been corrupted in turn making them feel they can get praise without doing the required work thoroughly and exquisitely. James Harrison agrees with this message, as in the article he made a statement saying, “I'm sorry I'm not sorry for believing that everything in
The topic of whether children should receive participation trophies has sparked national debate. According to a recent
In my essay, I will explain why participating in trophies is not only unnecessary but can also be harmful to their development and understanding of real-world competition. Support 1: The first reason why I believe kids should not get participation trophies is that it builds character. In this generation,
While many writers claim that participation trophies are beneficial, writer Ashley Merryman agrees with the idea that participation trophies are more destructive than beneficial regarding the learning process of a child. The general argument made by Merryman in her work, “Forget Trophies, Let Kids Know It’s O.K. to Lose,” is that providing
Children should be given trophies based on their hard work and dedication. When a child starts something, knowing in the end that he or she will just receive a trophy no matter the outcome, then he or she feels they do not have to work as hard as if they were to have to work for that award. Not receiving a trophy could motivate a child to work hard and stay committed in that activity to achieve the best that he or she can be. “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). This quote can offer a lot of insight. Although, it may say “I don’t care that you’re learning from your mistakes,” it only encourages learning from mistakes. If winning is the ultimate goal, children will learn from experience on what works and what does not work to help them win. Awards should be used as incentives for children to work hard. Like winning a state championship or individual wise like being a Most Valuable Player (MVP). That would show them that they out work everyone else and this is what they are rewarded
There are many reasons to prove that we should not give kids trophies. There are so many trophies that kids get that for not doing anything and we need to start giving trophy to kids that are doing stuff and put effort on the things that they
Kids who don't try, participate, and play in sports are given awards. They call them participation trophies, and they should not be allowed to hand them off to kids. To begin, kids in sports should not get trophies in participating because those who don't try are given an award anyway and some kids may think that they will always get one for everything they do. Although some parents may think that everyone should get a trophy, once they grow up they wouldn't be ready for how it is playing sports professionally. When you play professionally, you don't get a participation trophy every time you play a game. If kids at a young age learn now and don't get a trophy every week, their hearts won't be broken later in life. Next, some parents believe
Across the world children line up on playing fields and courts to acknowledge the conclusion of the season and seek recognition for their ability or sportsmanship. One by one each player shakes the hand of the coach and receives a trophy. When the ceremony has concluded spectators see a field of happy children each one with an award. In this ceremony there are no losers, no winners and everyone is awarded just for participating. Trophy lined rooms across our nation do not speak of excelling children but instead may be signs of parents who, while are well meaning, are protecting their children from the real world
Participation trophies are changing kids ideas of winning around the globe in many ways. First off, it gives children the wrong impression on working or putting an effort towards something. Trophies are something you should have to earn. Life doesn’t give you a participation medal, you have to earn it (Website #2). Kids just need to learn that