Participation Awards: Beneficial or Destructive?
Imagine the scene: It is the last day of school. Children and parents alike are buzzing with excitement. Parents begin to arrive filing into the auditorium, cameras prepped and ready to fire. But what has caused such an increase of excitement at the school today? It is Awards Day! A day on which every child regardless of their academic standing at the end of the year gets rewarded for simply coming to class. While I do believe that these awards can play a vital part in early child development, what is the outcome of reward without cause? Although there can be some benefits reaped from building the confidence in young children I gather there becomes a point where it can breed negative results. Children can become overconfident, entitled, and even lazy as a
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In an article written by Sunny Chen, she recalls feeling this way as a child "I am a competitive person – always have been, always will be. When I was younger, I coveted awards and recognition like they were the Holy Grail itself. I loved winning and acknowledgment of my abilities. Don’t get me wrong – I was never a sore loser about being beaten. I knew there was no way I could always be the best. Losing pumped me up, made me want to be better... "They have to take care of everyone" my parents would say. This principle irritated me to no end, and I would often grumble for days about losing out on the grounds that my superiors wanted to recognize my average peers." Chen 's feelings as a child back the position that such acknowledgment can frustrate those that try to succeed. It may also cause them to feel that by putting in less effort they will still receive the same amount of recognition as their peers who may not be trying as hard. Is this the type of attitude we want to instill in our youth? That by doing the least they can achieve the same results as someone who pushes themselves to be