Trophy Culture

As Abate says, “children today need as much of that as they can get in our society.” Parker says trophy’s and not receiving one yourself can be degrading. In addition to acknowledging their effort, they also receive trophies or certificates, reminding them that they were a part of the

Not everyone is a winner. In the passages, “Participation Trophies Send a Dangerous Message,” by Betty Berden and, “Participation Trophies Send a Powerful Message,” by Parker Abate, this controversy is explored. Berden analyzes the way participation trophies affect not only the child receiving the trophy, but how that would affect them later in life. Abate claims trophies allow children to feel accomplished. But participation trophies are dangerous because the trophies set the children up for a false reality and are not valuable.

Imagine a world where everyone gets a reward for everything that they do well. Everyone would get a reward for making it to class on time, being ready for the bus in the mornings, and staying quiet in the halls. This is equivalent to when every kid gets a participation trophy for showing up to a game. Trophies shouldn't be given to everyone because over time, they will lose their value, they will over-inflate a child’s ego, and because it will make them unprepared for life. On the contrary, trophies should only be given to the highest ranking people in the competition, because trophies are good for rewarding as long as they deserve it.

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.

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

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

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,

The general argument made by Berdan in her work, “Participation Trophies Send A Dangerous Message,” is that participation awards commemorate individuals for everyone being a winner. More specifically, Berdan argues that distributing participation trophies to all participants diminishes the meaning of the first, second, or third place trophy. She writes, “When awards are handed out like candy to every child who participates, they diminish in value.” In this passage, Berdan is suggesting that rewarding children constantly with a trophy decreases the value of the trophy that the actual winners earned. Personally, I agree with Berdan because I agree with the concept that providing children with constant rewards sends a dangerous message later in life. On the other hand, writer Eric Priceman defends his opinion that these continuous awards are a necessary part of the education process for young children and will benefit them to strive for better. More specifically, Priceman argues that there is a difference between an award and a reward; he states that an award is given for achievement while a reward is given for accomplishment. He writes, “Just syntax maybe, but anyone that has ever achieved at the highest level has had to endure multiple levels of accomplishment first.” In this passage, Priceman is suggesting that people who have reached the highest levels of trophies and medals have also been encouraged along the way with things such as participation awards. He describes the action of distributing participation awards similarly to encouraging phrases that motivate an individual to strive for greatness. Despite his argument, I believe Priceman is wrong because rewarding children with a meaningless trophy or certificate provides no benefit for them in their future. More specifically, I

A child decides to join a tee-ball team. During the season, he sits on the ground and picks grass in the outfield. At the end of the season, this child gets an award: best flower picker! Some may say that this child just needed some self-esteem to help him get along. In reality, this child got a reward for doing nothing, even for not doing what he was supposed to. When children, such as this one, receive pointless awards, they assume all rewards come with no effort put in, they expect everything in life to come easily, and they don’t learn how to work diligently to earn rewards.

“Sending him home empty-handed at the end of a hard-fought season won’t help him learn the lesson of losing, it will teach him early that there’s no value in the attempt” (Zadrozny). Prizes such as trophies and ribbons are a controversial topic in society. Some believe that not enough are handed out to children while others believe that too many are handed out. Trophies are a symbol of victory and triumph, but do not forget that children just want to feel part of a team even though they are not good enough. Putting forth an honest effort is important, and doing well is the habit on which they will be repeatedly evaluated in life. Even though some believe trophies are not good, they give a boost of confidence while keeping children happy and

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.

This means that kids are getting “wimpier”. For example, on mensjournal.com C. Robert Cloninger said "All that means is that if you constantly reward a kid, you spoil them, and you don't build a capacity for them to be resilient to frustration," What Cloninger is trying to say is that after a kid gets a trophy all of the time, they will not know how to cope with losing when they are in a higher level sport. Also, they will get more upset and angry when they, for example, don't get a perfect score on a test or quiz in school. Some may say that getting these trophies can help kids self esteem. But, when they win too much they can feel like it is given to the and not try as hard. So, when children get trophies all of the time it can make them

This explanation shows that if children are raised receiving participation awards for not doing a child’s best or trying, they will carry out this attitude with them for a child’s whole life. Thus, giving participation trophies teaches kids it’s okay to do only the requisite and they therefore become

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