Should Children Receive Trophies Just For Participating?
What are trophies? They are memorable tokens that symbolize hard work and excellence. They are symbols of winners who worked hard to try and reach their goal. Children should not receive trophies just for participating. It teaches them bad life lessons and can set them up for failure in the long run.
Giving children participation trophies can give them the wrong kind of praise. A player who demonstrates a bad attitude on the rare occasions that he or she shows up can be unfair to their team mates. They are being given artificial praise that makes them feel extra special. It makes them believe that everything is always about them. They expect applause and they think they are entitled for getting an award even if they don’t deserve it. “According to Dr. Jean Twenge, the result of this constant praise has been a measurable increase in narcissism and a generation that has a deeply embedded sense of entitlement. ( Twenge) Generation Me: Why Today’s Young Americans are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled and More Miserable Than Ever.
Trophies can also be harmful to a child. There is research that shows excessive motivation on its own can be harmful, not helpful. Constantly praising someone for doing simple tasks could actually make them less happy in the long term. This is because
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Ninety five percent of all participants in sports fail to capture a championship. Receiving a trophy can also be motivational for a child, and they may try harder next time. Receiving a trophy may help build enthusiasm to return for another season. Additionally, it reminds kids that people do value their effort, regardless of how well they play. Although they might make a child feel better about themselves, there is no piece of research on youth sport motivation that shows trophies and rewards are a significant motivator to participation and