More handpicked essays just for you.
The importance of an inclusive teaching environment
Promote an inclusive learning environment
Essay on creativity among children
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Ashley Merryman, who is the co-author of Nurture Shock (NY Times, Oct. 2016), in “Forget Trophies, Let Kids Know It’s O.K. to Lose”, argues that it is absolutely all right for kids to fail and that their downfall can lead to victory worth more than a meaningless trophy. I passionately agree. Merryman begins her argument by stating that more harm comes from rewarding children regardless of their success. Merryman contends that our society has integrated a social system that teaches children losing is unacceptable. She refers to a recent study that supports her statement and concludes that children adhere to their parents’ perspectives on failure and success. She asserts that in not giving kids a trophy, they will learn the life lesson to …show more content…
The manner in which a kid’s parents react to failure, as she says, is “as crucial as celebrating their success.” The first step to allowing children to realize it is completely fine to lose is having a positive attitude as their superior and guardian. Children look up to and imitate their parents’ actions and beliefs. If parents accept failure as a way to succeed and enhance their skills, then their child will believe the same perspective. Sarah’s parents, wildly upset when her Little League team lost to their rivals, rambled to her about all his errors. They didn’t accept failure as a stepping stone to achievement. Adhered to her parent’s same perspective, Sarah viewed defeat as a weakness. Thinking less of her capability, she didn’t bother practicing to better his performance. At the start of the next season, she didn’t sign up for any sports and became depressed. A kid’s self-esteem plays a vital role in the development of their skills and success. The perspective in which a child views herself affects her effort and performance. Trophies are seen “as vindication” or a justification towards children who have already developed a high-self-esteem. They feel it is what they deserve, which serves as evidence of how great they already view themselves. Participation trophies that aren’t deserved hinder a child’s esteem and effort even more. The praise that wasn’t particularly earned gravitates their minds towards …show more content…
Children definitely gain more from their realizing their mistakes, than receiving underserved praise through a trophy. She contends that “we must focus on process and progress, not results and rewards.” “The Karate Kid,” a memorable film for generations, features various morals to kids all across the globe. Its story line casts an unskilled child, foreign to China, trying to learn the tedious technique of karate. Although he goes through pain and tremendous failure, he realizes his mistakes and learns through his defeat. With the help of his encouraging mentor, he masters karate with beautiful skill. Through his failure, he acknowledged his faults in order to surpass them. The material rewards were meaningless compared to his feeling of self-triumph. A child doesn’t “need manufactured praise” as a reward if their skill is already mastered. He doesn’t need to be given a trophy to know he succeeded; instead, his learned skill is worth more. The feeling of accomplishing and developing his abilities is far more impactful to a child “than any trophy” has to offer. Mathew, a joyful junior, was on the junior varsity basketball team. After several weeks of practice, he finally developed the skill to communicate with his team mates. He had always received meaningless trophies, but the feeling of mastering the skill himself was truly meaningful. His
He didn’t take his sport seriously because he knew he was going to get a trophy anyway, whether he won or lost. Giving a trophy to a kid who maybe didn’t participate in a game but tried his absolute hardest in practice to get better is understandable. However, giving a kid who did nothing in practice to make himself better just shows that child that you don’t need to work for anything in life because either way you will get rewarded. “There are two kinds of people, those who do the work and those who take the credit. Try to be in the first group; there is less competition there.” And what about those kids who aren’t that great at activities, or they don’t show up to practices? Should they still get a trophy? Are they qualified to sit in the same category as a kid who works their butts off in practice, shows up everyday, and is a good sport? I understand showing that everyone is equal, but there comes a point when you have to show a child that they need to work for what they
There are numerous reasons why participation trophies are harmful to young children’s well-being. As said by NFL linebacker James Harrison, “When children get participation trophies they think that they are always entitled to an award for doing your best.” (Website #2). Sometimes a child’s best effort isn’t always enough and they should always want to get better. Kids learn to believe
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
Why do we get participation trophies. If you are in a sport and your team loses all of its games, but you still get a trophy than deep down you will not be proud of that trophy, it will just bring back bad memories. If you do not feel like you earned the trophy than you will not get any sense of success and accomplishment when you look at it because you would know that you did not deserve it. When someone is given a prize for failing they will not be ready for they real world because they will be used to being a winner even though they really were a loser. In the real world everyone is trying to be top dog, they do not care if you fail as long as they succeed. Everyone has to be prepared to lose and to bounce back from it, because they will
Imagine this, you had a difficult game against a rival team, but were able to prevail against them. You would think that the best on the team, you, would get the trophy for winning the game for your team and that you would be celebrated. Think again, as everyone is given a trophy, even the one kid who continued to mess everyone else up and almost lost you the game. What kind of message does it send to kids when they are given a trophy for doing nothing? It breeds contempt and a mentality of expectancy. Henceforth, this stands as reason as to why participation trophies should not be an idea.
When the coach turned his head, the seven-year-old stuck a finger down his throat and made himself vomit. When the coach fumed back, the boy pointed to the ground and told him, “Yes, there it is, Coach. See?” (Tosches A33).It emphasizes the fact that if a child gets hurt once, they will fear the possibility of getting hurt again ,so they try to find excuses to prevent themselves from playing the game.Second,Statsky states how competitive adults have drained the fun out of children's sports and made the game unappealing for children.She cites Martin Rablovsky, a former sports editor for the New York Times says that in all his years of watching young children play organized sports, he has noticed very few of them smiling. “I’ve seen children enjoying a spontaneous pre-practice scrimmage become somber and serious when the coach’s whistle blows,” Rablovsky says. “The spirit of play suddenly disappears, and sport becomes job-like” (qtd in Coakley 94). It shows the fact that competitive adults are oblivious to their actions and don't notice that what they are doing can really affect a child mentally.Third, Statsky is concerned that competitive sports will lower a child's self-esteem and make them lack confidence.’’Like adults, children fear failure, and so even those with good physical skills may stay away because they lack
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.
Being left out from receiving a participation trophy can effect a child’s self-esteem. When kids work hard for something and get recognition they essentially feel good about themselves. That can also be said about the opposite effect. Not enough or none at all recognition can make a child feel like they’re not good enough. Which leaves the child with a damaged self-esteem.
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
When I was six years old, I played on an extremely bad soccer team. That year we won one single game. Nobody knew how to shoot, dribble, or pass. Yet somehow my team kept winning trophies. They weren’t anything special; just a soccer ball with the words, “What Matters is You Had Fun!” It didn’t matter if we won or lost because we always got these trophies, trophies for participating. Many people believe that participation trophies are a good thing for children, but all they do is make children think that they always win. Participation trophies are a negative thing for kids.
Our society has shifted its beliefs in how we should treat competition in young people. The concept that "everyone receives a trophy" has taken the place of only rewarding those who achieve excellence within that activity. Rewarding all participants in youth activities and sports has become standard practice in American culture. However, this practice has become the root of many heated discussions as to whether the presentation of participation trophies has a positive or negative effect on the young children of America. Many prestigious researchers have invested a monumental amount of time into developing a concrete answer on the issue. However, many of these researches stand on opposite sides of the line, only increasing the heat of the debate.
Kids nowadays are getting smarter and smarter as technology continues to improve and as the amount of content being taught in school increases. Even though they might feel good about getting a trophy or if it raises their self esteem maybe they don't know what the participation trophy truly means but they will start to think about what they did on the team to deserve that trophy. Some may find reasons to explain why they got this trophy but others may not be able to and it will start to motivate the kid next time to stand out on the team and make something of himself to prove that he is better than just some participation trophy. Many kids also know the difference between a participation trophy and a real trophy and what either means or symbolizes
To conclude, participation trophies should not be given out to kids in school sports. They can bring down self-confidence, encourage athletes to try harder by not giving them out, and they take away the glory of actually
First, Ashley Merryman states, “In June, an Oklahoma Little League canceled participation trophies because of a budget shortfall. A furious parent complained to a local reporter,”’My look forward to their trophy as much as playing the game.’” This expresses how much a trophy is worth for an athlete, but usually it is playing the game that matters and not getting the trophies. In addition, Jean Twenge, author of “Generation Me” also states,“Having studied recent increases in narcissism (having an excessive interest in oneself; an over-inflated ego often due to parents’ overvaluation) and entitlement among college students, she warns that when living rooms are filled with participation trophies, it is part of a larger cultural message...” This fabricates narcissism in young athletes as well as college students. In short, narcissism and selfishness can affect
Scientists and psychologists argue that rewarding effort is beneficial because it provides positive reinforcement. Nowadays the norm is to hand out trophies to everyone on youth sports teams as long as they're on the roster. This is controversial because some believe this teaches kids that losing is okay because they will still get rewarded. This is incorrect because losing is okay and there are more important influences to a child's development. This shows why we should continue awarding kids with participation trophies in youth sports.