The topic I choose was a video called “losing is good for you.” In this video Ashley Merriman talks about how instead of giving awards for participation and not keeping score kids should lose to understand that they must work to get what and where they want. The important part of this topic to me and others is that kids are underachieving due to the praise they gain just for doing as little as they can. Failure strongly affects emotions and if the first time they feel true failure is when they are all grown up, it is too late and will cause problems for them.
My first source I will talk about is the original article. The article was published in the New York Times by a lady named Ashley Merriman. Ashley is a lady who feels that trophies and medals should be earned not given. She begins by saying that trophies were once rare things made out of silver and jewels but were later massed produced and sold in catalogs and sporting good stores. She says that today participation trophies and prizes are almost a given at the end of each season. She says that an A.Y.S.O. (American Youth Soccer Organization) branch hands out approximately 3,500 awards each year and that 12% of budgets go to trophies and medals. The trophy industrie is now making approximately three billion dollars per year. She continues to speak about how they can be powerful motivators but can lead to underachievement in the future. She uses a professor's studies to point out that children react well to praise and will later collapse during their first hint of failure. By age 4 or 5 they begin to notice that some players are better than others and begin to understand what participation awards really mean. She says that when a living room is filled with trophies the message being sent is that all you have to do to succeed is show up. She finishes by saying that you must be taught to overcome setbacks and losses and to teach them that they must progress over time. As you can tell she strongly believes that children should not receive participation awards.
My next source is a radio talk show from California. The show is called air talk and they call this segment Rethinking the 'trophy industrial complex' and letting kids lose. They begin by talking about how nobody wants to see a kid hurt and how that is the reason that so many awards are handed out. In this article they use a reference of kids getting gold stars just for showing up to school and also the common participation awards in sports. This article also refers to the branch of the A.Y.S.O. which hands out 3,500 awards each year. This is one branch in one state that hands out this many awards each year. He also speaks about how awards can be powerful motivators to kids but the recognition does not encourage them to strive to achieve goals. In this article he says that “you’re not only robbing them of the excitement of competition, but the motivation to improve.” He ends his talk by asking “So, is it time to let kids lose a few? Are the hard knocks of sports actually good for children? Or should we protect and praise our little ones, while we can?” He does not answer the question directly but he also seems to feel that to many participation awards are handed out.
The next source I found was called Trophies Don’t Tarnish Kids. its written by a guy who uses the name woody woodburn. He Begins his article by naming of things that children nowadays do that are disrespectful or are bad manners. such as disrespect for elders and contradicting their parents. he says that children nowadays are being raised on praise and they are being praised for the bad things they do. He then turns around and begins to say that trophies are not a bad thing and that even when they get a trophy at a young age for participation they understand that their are better players and that they must work hard to achieve goals. He speaks about how if gaining trophies for participation is a bad thing then adults should be getting the same treatment as children when an adult gets a participation medal for finishing a marathon even if they walk the entire way and finish last. He begins to finish by saying that a plastic medal isn’t meaningless or all meaning and that it is just a nice memento like a team picture or a marathon finishers medal. It sounds to me that this guy is blaming adults for the way kids act and how they fail. This is one of the few articles that disagrees with Ashley Merriman and the only one I found that blames the adults for the failure.
When I first began this I immediately thought back to times that I received a participation trophy or award. I didn’t have an opinion on the topic until I read this and as I began to form an opinion and I thought Woody woodburns columb was going to change my mind a bit but it was hard agree with what he was saying.Two times came to mind. The first was when I first began to wrestle and I remember going to a tournament and only having three people in my weight class, me being one of the three. I lost both of my matches but received a medal for being in the top three. That is the closest thing to a participation trophy that I have ever received personally. It has no meaning to me. It is in a shoebox in the top of my closet where nobody can see it. The next time I remember seeing somebody receive an award for participation was my brothers baseball team. A few parents (whose kids didn’t play much) decided that the kids deserved something for completing the season. They thought they were cool to have at the beginning but it didn't take long for the effect to wear off. His is in the basement covered in dust. He will never show that to anyone. He now has a state championship ring that he is not proud of due to his lack of playing time. He does not feel that he has earned it but everybody on the team receives one. This shows me that all these trophies bring feelings and that they are not always good feelings. I feel that Participation trophies should be removed and that it will give a trophy more meaning. Woody woodburn had good points but I don’t feel like it is the parents fault.