Why Losing Is Good For You Essay

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

Children learn the most through trial and error. Ashley Merryman agrees, saying, “It’s through failure and mistakes that we learn the most” (Merryman). As a famous author about child psychology Merryman uses a philosophical position to convey to the audience about the importance of letting children lose to help them grow and become better people. She also states that “we’re teaching kids that losing is so terrible that we can never let it happen” (Merryman). She continues that this destructive message is teaching kids react more towards losing instead of celebrating their success. Also that it is not okay to lose. Kids should know that not receiving participation trophies is okay, and that it helps them do better.

Heffernan believes that if kids are given these trophies as a sign of recognition, even for just showing up, they will become motivated to do more next time, because when it comes down to winning and losing, at a young age it’s not a necessity, as the lesson in that is all around them (Heffernan, Paragraph 3). The main lesson in this is that it teaches kids at a young age to not give up, and to strive to succeed, although there is no need to fret over failure, because what matters is that you do your best. Even if success isn’t the result, then working hard with recognition as motivation will have a greater outcome the next time. Not only that, but it is a lesson in teamwork, as kids are taught to work together, and if someone is struggling, then they are there to help, since they have been in the same situation (Heffernan, Paragraph 8). Teamwork is a major key in adulthood. There will be many instances in which teamwork is key, and will make tasks easier to handle. Where there is teamwork, there is also leadership, a quality that many discover through teamwork. It is important for kids to learn leadership in order to handle difficult situations in the future. There are some negatives to those who receive participation trophies, as there can be kids who just don’t care at all about any recognition, and can grow out of the sport, or anything else. Sometimes, what is used to motivate some can be seen as discouraging towards others, and there is where a flaw is seen with

Participation trophies are a way to fool parents into thinking that they are protecting their kids. “It’s affirmation that our kids are as wonderful as we think they are” (Armour). When really all that is being done is postponing the child from experiencing failure. The longer we shield kids from experiencing loss or failure the worse they will react to it when they experience it, but yet parents will try their best to postpone it as long as possible. They want every child to receive the same amount of recognition and complain if their child does not. This not only affects the child, but affects the businesses involving these younger kids. If a business like a basketball camp gives out trophies for different skill building competitions for example, and a child does not receive any rewards. The parent will not send their child back for the fear that not receiving a trophy will ruin their child’s childhood. This can ruin the business’s income and what they can do in their camp based on the number of people that decide to come back

Participation trophies are a highly debated topic among childrens sports. Many people beleive it is unessarcary, while others beleive it boosts self-esteem to non-confident young athletes. Participation Trophies should not be handed out because kids will learn that if the just give a little effort towards accomplishing something they will get rewarded.

If everyone wins a trophy they will eventually lose their value. To begin with, “ If we give a trophy to everyone, then the award has no value.” said Dweck. This is saying trophies will just become like a toy, not something that stands for winning and honor. Secondly,” When awards are handed out like candy to every child that participates, it diminishes in value. If every soccer player receives a trophy for merely showing up to practice and playing in games, the truly exceptional players are slighted.” says Betty Berdan New York Times. This means not only the trophies are losing value but because of that the good players aren’t even getting recognized.

Sports for young kids are very fun and active so you all can get a trophy and be active but It is one of the worst thing you could do. Some people think you should get a participation trophy and other people think you should not get a participation trophy for losing. I think you should not get a participation for losing because one thing it will cost a lot of money to buy all the trophy and you should try to win and get first or second so you can get a trophy like a champion ship or get a runner up trophy.

For many kids around the world, childhood sports are a cherished and blossom lasting friendships. Some kids choose to participate and others just sign their children up. Recently, “The Great Trophy Debate” has sparked a question of whether or not all participants should receive trophies or not. Currently, many sport organizations have taken about traditional trophies and substituted participation trophies for all. O’Sullivan argues that participation trophies are not really trophies because the more trophies given out, the less worth each will have.

Ashley Merryman’s article, “Forget Trophies, Let Kids Know It’s O.K. to Lose” Explains that receiving a trophy for lack of achievement or effort, teaches children that failure is so unacceptable that losing can never happen. Reacting to children 's failure is just as important as celebrating their success. “Children need to know that we learn the most through failure and mistakes”(Forget Trophies, Let Kids Know It’s O.K. to Lose, Ashley Merryman.) Children need to know that it is perfectly fine to lose so that they can learn from the experience. Not giving a child a trophy, and letting them lose isn’t to embarrass children, it 's teaching them it takes a long time to get great at something. Making mistakes is a part of life, and we need to focus on progress and the process not necessarily the rewards and results. The best way for children to boost their self image is by developing their abilities.

No one really likes to feel defeated and it is in those times that we may think we want a participation award. Some think that the award will take away the sting. Unfortunately, it is through feeling that sting that we truly understand the sweet feeling of winning. It is only with feeling the exact opposite that we can learn and appreciate what a win is really like. Likewise, it is only when we understand losing that we can feel compassion for those that do not win. An attribute that can also come about is learning to be a good sport in times that we fail to

You've been working so hard all season long, and everything is leading up to this one tournament. The first game was awful with a loss of twelve to zero. The whole team is very sad and goes into the second game with a negative attitude. Because of that, you loose the second game as well and get knocked of the tournament. You think about how all your hard work just went to waste, but you sigh and remember that you’ll still earn a medal anyways just for participating. Lots of people in the media have been debating this topic recently, and the sides are pretty much split right in half. Lots of people think that participation trophies are a huge mistake, but others believe that those awards can

If this mentality persists, kids would lose their motivation and concentration to play the game because they would learn a false truth. What is this false truth? It is a sense always earning an award no matter how successful they are or not. The kids would lose motivation, determination, and sportsmanship. This lack of skills could spread to other aspects of the kid's lives, such as; work, school, and finishing chores. This would spread to their everyday lives because they would not learn any skills.

About 50% of Americans believe that a trophy shouldn't be given out to losing participants or those who “just show up”. This same amount of people also have beliefs such as the rewards they get and don’t get now, teach them lessons for later on in life. They believe that if these participants get rewarded for not doing as well, they will expect much more for doing a lot less or the minimal. If you were to Google this question you would see an array of “yes” answers and “no” answers in opinion columns. Stanford University professor of psychology Carol Dweck states, “Kids should not receive a trophy for participation because it can take away from the lessons of

Trophies are for the winners the ones who put in the hard work to win. They are not for the losers if they don’t want to put in the work to win they don’t deserve trophies. A trophy is a reward for winning not for participating. Trophies are not for everyone. In this essay i will give three reasons to enlighten you why trophies are not for everyone.

Society today has it all wrong, instead of teaching kids that they can learn from losing, we are teaching them that everyone can win and there are never losers.