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Thesis paper on participation trophies
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Most kids playing sports get lots of trophies. But do those trophies mean something or are they just for playing the sport? Most participation trophies are given out to the losing teams for just playing the sports, they don't even have to try. How does this affect the rest of their lives? Do these trophies ruin the thrill of winning? Fights are breaking out on many blogs and social media sites, this must be decided and soon. People all over the country have been taking online polls to decide which one is better for our kids. In one of these major polls, the endings said that 57% of Americans say only the winning team should get trophies for their sport (emily). As Christofer Titus says, ¨Participation Trophies are the soul herpes of a generation,¨ or, ¨Please stop teaching my children that everyone gets a trophy just for participating. What is this, the nobel prize? Not everyone gets a trophy.¨ from Glenn Beck. …show more content…
Some of the children that have taken online surveys have reported that instead of encouraging them to do better the trophies actually bring down their confidence levels. Their reasonings were that when you see someone else getting the first place trophy, you know they practiced and tried their hardest. To them this means they need to try harder. Trying harder in Practices and practicing at home needs motivation, they get this motivation from seeing someone else getting a REAL Trophy. Another thing is that not everyone can win. Other kids said that they just throw away their participation trophies because they know that in life not everyone can win the same game. ¨Hard work without talent is a shame, But talent without hard work is a tragedy¨ Robert
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.
A solution could be improved by only handing out trophies to those who have earned them. There have been many studies to show the harms of participation trophies and how they can affect a child’s future. One study has shown that “if coaches use trophy presentations as a way to acknowledge each player’s unique effort or contribution, that message can be powerful” (Ross), but the fact is that many coaches will not do this and for that reason participation trophies must be banned from youth athletics. When coaches hand out these trophies they are sending the message that they don’t care and just want the children to always be acknowledged as “winners.” Participation trophies have also diminished the value of true awards, and can make the children who have put in the effort and hard work not feel the reward they should. “In the kid’s movie The Incredibles, the evil villain tries to give everybody superpowers. His theory is that if everyone is special, then no one is special” (Krumrie). This is very true in our society and needs to be implemented by regulations and rules to make sure this does not happen. These rules and regulations would be set by athletic associations across the country to ensure the use of participation trophies are not used in sports. The directors will come
A participation trophy can help a child's drive to improve. When a child plays a game and loses, but then watches the other team get a trophy they feel that they suck and won't try to improve. Once they get a participation trophy they make the child feel like they did good and that next time if they get better they will get a bigger trophy for winning and not losing. For instance, “Further, studies also tell us that children who participate in sports get better…”(Huffington 1). This exemplifies that children who participate feel the drive to get better at the sport. When inferring that since they participated they are getting an award if makes them feel like they did good, and then they want to get even better to get a better reward. Thus making the kids get better at the sport showing that participation trophies are beneficial to children, but there are more opportunities to show how they are
Some people may argue that if everyone gets a trophy, everyone will be happy. That might be an understandable concern, however, according to people on blog.sportssignup.com, “By acknowledging everyone with the same award we’re actually celebrating no one and even undermining the efforts of those who really deserve to be recognized.” Similarly, it makes the kids who work really hard feel like there efforts were equal or worse than the efforts of those who do not try hard and do not work hard. On the other hand, if everyone gets a trophy than winners are no longer special. Kids should play sports because they enjoy playing them, not because they want a trophy. It is like one of those arcade games at the movie theater, you keep playing until you win. Another way to say this is, sports were made because they wanted to let people have fun and try to compete, but now sports is turning into the concept of everyone is a winner. Kids and adults feel like we are ruining what sports are supposed to be. In summary, many citizens think that kids should not get trophies for participation because only kids who work hard deserve
People all over the world have received trophies. Whether they are from a sport, a competition, or a good deed that somebody has done. Although trophies seem to lose value as time goes by, when a person receives that trophy, their self esteem builds up. Winning something could make a person feel like they are worth something, like they matter. In the article, “In Youth Sports, Participation Trophies Send a Powerful Message” written by Parker Abate, it has been stated that trophies are very important to people, especially children in their early years.
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
How would you feel if you saw someone get the same trophy as you, for simply showing up, while you tried your hardest? According to the "Trophies for All" policy, youth athletes are being awarded with participation trophies. It's time youth athletes realize, not everyone is a winner. The more trophies we give out, the less each one means. Furthermore, the premise behind these awards is a false one.
The trophies support extremely bad habits and stall the proper maturity and growth of entire generations that receive them. Cedric Moxey’s debate over the use of trophies reveals that football league officials in Keller, Texas actually felt that participation trophies “... send the wrong message and create bad habits” (Moxey 1). The point that is supposed to come of this is that in the “real world,” where competition decides and defines survival, just participating is not enough to be able to support a family or a lifestyle. The solution to this lies within the youth sports and competitions. Frank Fitzpatrick says that it is important that kids and young competitors accept a loss and see room to grow from it. By opening a young kid up to the feelings of both a win and a loss, they learn how to handle the feelings and how to build on any negative attitudes or outcomes. Life skills such as these are crucial to a child who wants to be able to live on their own in the future. Participation trophies make this sort of growth impossible for the current generations (Stein 1). Ashley Merryman, an author and journalist, said “... when children make mistakes, our job should not be to spin those losses into decorated victories” (qtd. in Fitzpatrick 1). Participation trophies do exactly this. They make a kid who did not win (and needs to accept that) feel as if everything did, in fact, go their way when it did
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.
Trophies should not be awarded to everyone for participation, but only to the select individuals who have had the determination to reach their goal of coming out on top of everyone else. Participation trophies will not teach children and teens the real realities of life, that not everything is going to go your way. Children need to know at an early age, that just showing up to a sport, isn't going to help you or your team win, if you don't put effort. Trophies are setting kids up for failure, rather than trying to teach them to succeed in life.
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
In words of sport psychologist Jonathan Fader, “science suggests that we need to praise our kids on process, not results […]. Kids that are praised for their effort rather than their ability tend to strive harder, enjoy activities more, and deal with failure in a more resilient way”. As ironic as it might seem, people who support participation trophies believe the exact same thing they disagree with: that without being promised any kind of reward, people wouldn’t have any healthy incentive to compete. Even though we might conceive any kind of disadvantage in the world as a result of injustice, it can also be caused by the natural and unavoidable act of competition.
Have you ever gotten a trophy for participations? Society has seemed to moved towards the everyone wins type of approach on trophies. The reason some believe that everyone should get a trophy is because they say that competition at a young age can be dangerous. While on the other hand people say that it teaches them many lessons. This topic has got many people riled up on this debate if everyone should get a trophy or if only a few should.