Gracie was in the final round of her gymnastics competition. The judges were announcing the first place winner now. “...... in second place. And last but not least, in first place….. Gracie!!” Gracie jumped in the air as her ponytail began flopping on her head. She ran up to get her trophy. After all this, she looked around and noticed that second place, third place, fourth place, fifth place, all the way down to last place were all awarded trophies that all looked exactly the same. Every detail... the foot high structure with the stars at the top, the blue lettering spelling out “great job” in the middle, the coloring, were ALL the same. Suddenly, she did not feel as much of a winner. She wondered why the people who did not work hard, goofed around during practice, and fell more than once during their routine got the same reward as she did… the one who worked hard everyday. The one who took her preparation very seriously. The one who practiced for perfection each day. So, why should inattentive people be rewarded with the same thing as the dedicated people? Why should athletes work hard when they know that everyone will get a trophy anyway? Of course, there …show more content…
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
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
Division 1 and Division 2 colleges provide over 2.9 billion dollars a year in scholarships to student athletes. Student athletes should not be compensated for participating in college sports. College athletes can receive full ride scholarships for playing their sport of choice. Is the 40,000 dollars they are receiving in scholarships not compensation; thus prompting the question is the top tier education they are being provided with, not compensation enough? Most of the thousands of students that participate in college sports compete for the love of the game, not for a paycheck. Furthermore, college athletes understand that they may not compete at the pro level, in fact, only 2 % of college athletes go on to play professionally. The main part of the term student-athletes is student. Students do not go to college expecting a check at the end of every month or to land a spot in the first round of the draft, instead the purpose is to receive an education. All things considered, student athletes should not receive compensation for playing sports in college because it would be almost financially impossible, some are already provided with money from scholarships , and finally they are being provided with an excellent higher education.
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 new trend across America has risen in sports. Event officials are doling out participation trophies in massive numbers. The question is, are these participation trophies negatively changing the basic American values we treasure in these children? Yes, participation trophies are shaping a new cultural norm of entitlement and it promotes a new attitude of doing nothing, yet still being rewarded for it. This trend must be put to a halt and reversed. Participation trophies are not the answer to making kids feel better about themselves.
The NCAA is an organization, founded by Theodore Roosevelt in 1906, led by a group of board members who’s goal is to have college players succeed both athletically and scholarly; coined the term ‘student athlete.’ The sport of football was having many problems in the late 1800’s/early 1900’s and President Roosevelt said, “reform the game or it will be abolished.” Thus, the birth of the NCAA was formed and rules were set to make the game safer to the athletes. The NCAA currently has three different divisions: Division I, Division II, and Division III. Each division has its own set of rules on what restrictions are placed. Division I is said to be the most competitive division where the top talent goes and where a lot of professional teams pull from. The NCAA is the main headline for all college sporting events and “runs the show” telling what people can, and cannot, do. The
How would you know what you are really good at if you don’t try everything? You would never know what you are really good at until you have tried everything. Although some people believe that limiting extracurricular activities will help you to stay on track, I think it is better if I decide how I want to spend my time because no one knows what I am really capable of better than myself and because some people are looking forward to getting athletic scholarships for college.
Jake martin was a student athlete in college. He are ready pay thousands of big bucks to get to college and his barely getting by.Jake play football and was getting a lot of hype!He needed money. He´s in magazines, jersey sales, commercials and etc and not getting an penny! Many athletes like Jake should get pay in college in these reasons.They should be paid to take care of expenses, because they worked hard on the court to earn the money and because the colleges are making a lot of money off of them.
Should everyone get a trophy? According to the "Trophies for all" policy , youth athletes, youth athletes are being awarded with participation trophies. Giving trophies to everyone is sending the wrong message .As well as Extrinsic motivation is more harmful than helpful. Not everyone is a winner so why award those who don't win? Some might reply this, "Is their anything wrong with giving a kid a trophy that says good job?"
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
“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
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 only hurt kids. These trophies have been given out in many sports for decades but they do not mean much to older children. Something as simple as golden painted plastic will not keep a child playing for long after their first years. Children must also be taught how to compete early on. These trophies create a lack of competition in youth athletes and should not be given to children above the age of ten to help teach them life skills and to protect them from struggling in their future lives when they will have to compete for jobs.
When children get trophies their whole life and start feeling like they are the greatest thing ever, but suddenly don’t get any trophies when they are older, it is not good for them. Explained another way, participation trophies are bad because they leave kids unprepared for real
From Losing is Good for You By Ashley Merryman As Mrs.Merryman states if she were a coach she would give the trophies to those who earned it, but the others she would give them a list of what to work on to improve their skill. She is making it so that the ones who need improvement can work hard to get the trophy next season. Mrs. Merryman is saying that if kids work hard for the trophy or award then they will be more successful in the future if the
I understand why parents want every kid to get a trophy because they want them all to be happy and you want to make them all feel equal. They think if every kid will get a trophy then there will be no problems anymore and there kid wont be upset when they lose. But there's the problem if there kid isn't upset when he loses then what is there to drive him to get better.