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Persuasive Essay On Trophies For Children

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There was once a girl named Sally who attended a basketball camp when she was nine. All of the kids there worked really hard, but not Sally. Sally refused to give an effort at all. At the end of the camp, Sally received a trophy for showing up — the same trophy that all the other children got. Sally cherished this trophy all her life and passed it down to her children since it taught her that you do not have to work hard for anything in your life and you will still be rewarded! As you can see, there are some issues with this scenario. In fact there is a lot of controversy on whether all children should receive trophies, or only a select few. I believe that giving children too many unearned trophies not only has no value, but has a negative effect on their character.

Some people think that giving children trophies for participation is good for them because it has a positive impact on the kids’ mindset. They say that it motivates children to do better and it makes them feel like they are not compared to children who have more talent. However, this …show more content…

For example, it makes kids entitled. If they grow up receiving awards that are not earned, naturally, they expect other things in life to come to them without putting forth effort. Also, it fails to motivate them. As claimed by Ashley Merryman in her article, “Losing Is Good for You,” “Awards can be powerful motivators, but nonstop recognition does not inspire children to succeed. Instead it causes them to underachieve.” In addition to this, it takes away the glory from the kids who truly do work hard. When some individuals put a lot of hard work into their academics or sports, they should be recognized for it. I have seen that these children get very discouraged when the kids who do not work as hard get the same recognition as them. As you can see, awarding children trophies for their every move has a very negative effect on their work

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