Awarding children trophies to children
The oxford dictionary of contemporary English defines a trophy as anything tangible that is often given as an award or recognition of merit. A trophy is a prize and, therefore, should be only given for a victory and not as a consolation. Despite the above definition, there have been endless debates around awarding children trophies to children, especially in the current era where many children are suffering from low self-esteem and other personality issues. It has become a tradition for parents, tutors, games coaches and other sporting supervisors to heap praise on children give them trophies, even when they do not deserve such recognition. Despite the need to boost children’s participation, giving trophies to kids for their participation in a sport and not for winning the sport should be discouraged as it has detrimental effects on the children’s development.
There has been a recent trend in children’s competitive games and sports where parents work alongside coaches and sports officials to award all participants equally irrespective of their performance in the sport. In such a case, reward and appreciation are not based on merit but rather on mere participation. According to XXX, proponents of the trend argue that emotional control and anger management in children do not sufficiently develop to handle failure. Such proponents further claim that while winners may feel proud of their efforts and feel motivated to work harder, losers are likely to develop low self-esteem and self-hatred for missing out on the trophies. Hence, the more recent practice has been that every child who participates in a sport is given a trophy of equal value to that of the winner so that all children leave the competition field with similar feelings about individual performance. Unfortunately, even at their tender age, children know the difference between the first and last positions just as they know the difference between a winner and loser. Such trophies my have a temporary intended positive effect on the child’s emotion. However, the long-term effects are harmful and hence the need to stop the practice.
Awarding participation in sports as opposed to effort and merit quashes away the essence of competition in sports. Principally, the pain of losing out in a competition initiates and drives improvement for the future victory. The fighting spirit and the tendencies to identify weaknesses and mistakes for future improvement should be inculcated in children right from their early ages. Similarly, for any competition, not only in sports, but there must also be winners and losers. The difference in terms of winning and losing is reflected in positions and the respective awards for each position. The winner, in most cases, is the most celebrated and rewarded. Participation trophies, therefore, violates the rules of competition by placing every participant in place of the winner. The competition amongst individual participants is affected as it does not matter since everyone will be rewarded. Kids who get such participation trophies do not benefit but instead, suffer the consequences of a non-competitive attitude.
Giving children trophies for any other reason apart from awards of merit diminishes the value of the trophy. The principal reason that is passed across to the children when all of them are awarded regardless of their performance is that all people are winners by virtue of participation. In soccer, for example, not every player who merely shows up to practice or turns out on the pitch is awarded but instead, top scorers, overall best player, and best performers in different positions are identified and selected. It is therefore dangerous to train children to expect trophies for mere participation as they end up insufficiently prepared for the other side of life, failure. It is advisable to train children, right from their tender age, that success and rewards are not always guaranteed, they come as a combination of hard work, dedication, and the passion to win. Children often learn through imitation and guided experience. They often pick vital lessons from such guided experiences and stick with them to constitute their personality and character.
Participation trophies also kill hard work and sacrifice among children, leading to lazy and uninterested youths. According to XXX participation trophies, to children, are given as a form of protection against negative feelings of failure.
Most protective parents fear that their children may be discouraged to participate in future sporting activities if they do not match the prowess of their peers in different sports. Despite the need to identify and appreciate diverse talents and abilities in children, non-
in one field should not be covered up by participation trophies. In fact, with such practices, it becomes impossible to pick out the best talent since all efforts are appreciated equally. The result in that children does not feel the urge to try hard since an award is guaranteed irrespective of the end results. On the other hand, hardworking children on the hand may easily feel that their efforts are devalued since everyone gets equal recognition. Such children are less likely to put in extra efforts to further polish up their skills and talent due to the initial demotivation. Parents should instead utilize sports as a platform for the identification of different talents with a view of nurturing the same. Children who show early signs of passion and ability in a given sport should be encouraged while those who do not should be offered the opportunity to explore other fields rather than blindfolding them.
The beneficial outcomes of sports on children are also lost trough awarding of participation trophies. According to XXX, sports and competitive activities are not meant to make children winners but instead challenge the participants to acquire and develop an active lifestyle, create social bonds, and develop fond memories. Research into sports activities for children indicates that less than one percent of children end up as professional sports personalities despite the introduction to sports at a very tender age. Contrary to the above statistics, awarding trophies to every participant tend to overemphasize the importance of competition as the core objective of sports and subsequently looks down on other benefits as outlined. In the future, such children may be deceived by such trophies to waste their precious time on sports activities that are never their talents. In other cases, children who fail to succeed in certain sporting activities against their passion may question every parental decision during their childhood, especially when they realize that such trophies were never meant to signify their sporting prowess.
In conclusion, every parent and game coach needs to understand the role of play and games on child development as well as the effects of awards on individual performance. It is justified to appreciate every effort in sports. However, the reward must match the effort, to reflect the value of competition and victory. The idea of generalizing awards to avoid disparities that may yield low self-esteem in children is not detrimental to the children’s view of victory but also has negative effects on the future sporting engagements of the very children. It is, therefore, in my view, that trophies should be reserved for the first three positions only. On the same note, participation in games should be recognized and subsequently celebrated with words of encouragement and perhaps a pat on the shoulder, but no trophies. Sports, just as in life, has only a limited space on the podium and everyone should strive to reach there as opposed to the assumption that everyone has space on the podium.