Children's Happiness Is The Greatest Gift

The thrill of winning a trophy for the first time is always memorable, however, it brings up the question: Is receiving an award for participating just as exciting? Participation awards are a topic highly debated among those of all ages, with none agreeing on a single answer. Individuals who are under the impression that they are essential believe they boost a child’s confidence and self-esteem. This may be true in some cases, but these trophies could be doing more harm than good. Although in the moment they may appear to be wholesome, they have a lasting effect on children as they grow older. Many children put loads of effort into winning awards, which is belittled by participation trophies that are not only unhelpful and unrewarding, but don’t teach them the important values learned by losing.

These peoples thoughts are that participation trophies don’t cause any harm. They believe that participation trophies should be given out, not to state that everyone's a winner, but to congratulate young athletes on their time and effort put forth to compete. At the same time, they also believe that there is nothing wrong with celebrating a child’s achievement with a trophy that will make them happy, but not leave a lasting effect on their life (Website #1). However, even though it doe congratulate them for their effort, it also tells them that they will always win. Many people say that these participation trophies won’t leave a lasting impact on a child’s life, but you never know, maybe that one little trophy will cause them to become full of themselfs and narcissistic. All I’m saying is that It’s fine to acknowledge a child’s achievements, but participation trophies don’t do that. They show kids that they don’t need to work hard to

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

Merryman voices “A recent study found if parents thought failure was debilitating, their kids adopted that perspective” (Merryman). It is the parent’s job to teach their children how to accept participation awards correctly. That losing is not that bad. Merryman goes on saying “If parents believed overcoming failure and mistakes make you stronger, then their children believed it, too” (Merryman). That statement pressures the idea that whatever the parent’s opinion on the matter is transferred to the kid. That kid will go on to work harder and not need the participation trophies to be an objective. The success of the children depends on the

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. "Should kids get a trophy for participation?" or should only the achievers receive a trophy? In the following essay it will explore the idea that everyone should win from participating and get an achievement for being there.

The topic of whether children should receive participation trophies has sparked national debate. According to a recent

Finally, kids that are given participation trophies are given the wrong idea. Fifty-seven percent of people said "only winners" deserve to have participation trophies, giving out participation trophies is tantamount to giving kids the wrong praise, and giving kids with bad attitudes and not a care in the world is not a good idea. These kids need to realize that they need

Elementary students who participate in group sports often receive participation awards at the end of the sports season. James Harrison posted on twitter that he felt participation trophies were wrong, because the child did not actually achieve anything. This post has caused a major controversy across the United States. Some parents agree with Harrison and say that participation trophies create a false sense of achievement, which stops their child from trying hard later on. I, however, disagree. Participation awards help kids feel like they had a part in an activity, reward children from their effort, and can help them strive for success.

Participation trophies have created many issues on the effects it causes a child in the future. The issues relate to wanting the child to have a nice life, but also wanting them to learn the values and morals that are needed to succeed in this world. In both essays, they want the child to have everything they never had, but most importantly to obtain the grits and tools that will allow them be successful and independent. Participation trophies have caused two major controversies between wanting to teach a child about success and failure to make them work hard, or teaching them about self-esteem and commitment to allow them to work as a team with skills and protocols.

The issue that is at hand is about kids receiving participation trophies. Vivian Diller illustrated

In fact, when young guns begin to view participation trophies as an insult to their potential, they’ll aim for nothing but winning” (Maniyamkott 1). Every time a child receives a participation trophy they

Participation trophies should not be handed out to teach children the purpose of working hard to achieve your

Does frivolously giving trophies to children make them into better adults or take away their will to give their best? Giving trophies out every time a child participates in an activity has just become a way of life; from receiving 12th and 13th place ribbons at field days to receiving participation trophies for tee ball and soccer. Children should have to earn what they receive, and if they lose then the hurt feelings they may have will just help them grow in to well-rounded adults that are able to cope with failure in their future. Giving trophies to children is great for boosting a child’s self-esteem, yet it dilutes the ability to overcome failure; trophies are mass produced and frivolously distributed by adults, but children still know what they have earned and what they have not.

Last year 7 year old Billy beat his opponent in a tennis match. Billy was so enlightened that he was going to get a trophy. Then, he looks to his opponent and saw that he was getting the same trophy as Billy! Billy felt very depressed after that because he worked so hard to win just to see the opponent getting a trophy for clearly not as much work. Participation trophies started in the 60’s to motivate inner city kids, but it spread like wildfire everywhere. Kids should not get trophies just for participating they need to work hard to get them this is ,because after time trophies can lose their value. It will also not encourage kids to improve with skills , and it is very expensive.

In Hannah Pandels’s article, Healthy Competition is Good for Children, she makes the statement that it, competition, is a necessary and essential part of our society today. This article was written partly in response to numerous other articles stating the opposite but one was singled out. The American author Alfie Kohn. Now this fits into the childhood development debate that has been ongoing lately regarding the theory that today’s kids are more entitled to things and have less problem solving skills then previous generations. With that back ground she begins to vocalize her thoughts regarding the issue. Her thesis is clear, it is in the title for goodness sakes, that competition is a normal part of growing up and it is essential to the proper development of children. She states “competition breeds excellence” (Pandel) this simple statement engulfs the