Marrone 1

Alex Marrone

Mrs. Cramer

Comp 1 Pd. 7

4 Oct. 2018

Participation Trophies

Participation trophies could be destroying the idea of “best effort” and replacing it with

“good enough”. The debate is whether participation trophies should be given out. This could be

nullifying the concept of striving to be the best and to even compete. Why would someone want

to be the best when they can get rewarded for just trying? This is a recipe for problems down the

road in adulthood. Rewarding young kids just for showing up is not beneficial to them in the

long term; this is because it won’t teach them to try to be the best, they will not strive for

achievements, and will not develop into strong minded adults.

Trying your best is an important idea in life, but today's children may not have that

mentality. In a study by “CNN Wire”, studies found that participation trophies reward effort, not

outcome. This is not a good way to teach the easily molded minds of young kids. The idea

behind the use of participation trophies was that it would encourage kids to try new things and

put themselves out there. While on paper that may sound good, in practice this is not the case; it

is not helpful in the long run. While a little kid may go try out for the basketball team just for the

reason that they will get a trophy no matter what is more damaging than people may think. This

is because this will develop that mentality that as long as they try, they will be equally rewarded

as somebody that excelled. That obviously is not a good mentality to have, and it is also said

that, “instead of it building confidence, it will lead to narcissism” (CNN, Wire). In another article
 Marrone 2

titled, (“Losing is Good for You”), it talks about how participation trophies lower expectations as

well. As said in the article, “nonstop recognition causes kids to eventually under achieve.”

(Merryman, Ashley). That is just human nature. Taking the easiest way out to the same result,

and participation trophies are reinforcing that by allowing young kids to not try, just show up,

and get the same result as those who tried and did the best and excelled. That is why this is a bad

message to be teaching. Participation trophies are taking away the incentive to be the best. If

something does not change; our children will lose the drive to do the best they can.

This will teach our kids to not strive for achievements with this new idea of, “everybody

gets one”. Participation trophies, and trophies in general, have become somewhat meaningless in

today's age. This is because everybody knows that they are given out in abundance. (Trophy

Overload). This can be represented with inflation. When money is more common, and everybody

has some, it loses its worth and becomes meaningless. Things that have value are because of the

absence of everybody having them. That is exactly what is going on with trophies, they are

losing value because everybody is getting them no matter how hard it was worked for. Movies,

shows, and people joke about how trophies are no longer worth anything (“Trophy Overload”).

This knowledge is and has been passed onto our kids. Realizing that it is not worth the effort to

try when they will still “win” by sitting on the bench. However, many coaches and professional

athletes are stopping the use of participation trophies because of this newfound realization (CNN

Wire). The more the trophies are given away, the less value is held, and therefore become a joke,

not an achievement worth striving for.

Later in life, this generation’s kids will not be able to compete with things like colleges,

jobs, and yes, teams. Without the competitive spirit being taught at a young age, kids will not be

able to keep up with the competition in life. When constantly being given equal outcome as
 Marrone 3

others for different effort, that builds a mentality that lacks motivation (“Enhancing”). While

kids may get on the team at a young age just because they came and tried, that will not happen at

a higher level, especially in high school. If a person is not good enough to compete, then they

won’t make the cut, and trophies are not given to everybody at the end of the season, they are

only given if you win the division. Kids need to be taught this at a young age, not later in life

where it will be too late. But, this is more than just sports, this pertains to college as well. If a

child has the mentality to just get by, opposed to one that put fourth more effort and strived to be

the best and got outstanding grades, who will get into that college? The one that had motivation

to be the best, because later in life, that is what people look for. That leads into the next part in

the person’s life. Getting a job. An employer is not going to want to hire somebody that lacks

motivation and the ability to compete with their co-workers and competitors. They want

somebody that is going to fight for the promotion. This does not sound like a very successful

path that our kids are being led down. On this road they will not turn out to be well set adults,

and thus not have well set lives. Worse even, that could then pass the mentality onto the next

generation and start the cycle over again. Well-rounded adults for the future cannot have this

mindset, they need to be ready to compete.

Rewarding children for just trying in the same way as an MVP is not a good lesson to

teach; because this won’t teach them to be the best, lose the meaning of real achievement, and

won’t grow into well rounded adults. People should be pushed to do the best, especially at a

young age. Nobody recognizes trophies as real achievements anymore, this needs to change,

because teaching our kids something to strive for is important. People will need to compete with

each other later in life, and the discipline that they will receive needs to be learned at a younger

age. So, when our kids cannot get into a good college or get a job, will they be “good enough”?
 Marrone 4

Works Cited
"Does Sports Participation Deserve a Trophy? Let the Parental Debate Begin!" CNN Wire, 18

Aug. 2015. Academic OneFile,

link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A432245185/AONE?u=pl1949&sid=AONE&xid=dd3c4c2

e. Accessed 20 Sept. 2018.

"Enhancing Children's Satisfaction Participation Using a Predictive Regression Model of

Bowling Performance Norms." Search Proquest, edited by Charles L. Martin, 21

Dec. 1998,

search.proquest.com/openview/0f47717f4907d72db52450002b046b0e/1?pq-

origsite=gscholar&cbl=2030480.

Merryman, Ashley. "Losing Is Good for You." Teachers.sduhsd, 24 Sept. 2013,

teachers.sduhsd.net/mgaughen/docs/Merryman.Losing.pdf. Accessed 20 Sept.

2018.

"Trophy Overload." Pediatrics, vol. 115, no. 5, May 2005, p. 1298. Academic OneFile,

link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A132239054/AONE?u=pl1949&sid=AONE&xid=2

e3066e5. Accessed 20 Sept. 2018.