When you walk into any teenager’s room, you’ll most likely see ribbons, trophies or plaques showing their major efforts in their interests.
The main question is, does everyone deserve to have an award just for participating?
Do these awards discredit athletes who work hard and actually succeed in their sport?
This idea has had parents, educators, coaches and therapists debating for years.
Participation awards became popular in the United States in the 1990s. It is not clear who started the first participation awards, but the earliest mentioned of them is in a 1922 Ohio high school basketball tournament in order to encourage participation in their program.
Later, universities used these as incentives to boost enrollment in athletics.
In the 2000s, these trophies became widespread with younger children to motivate them to recognize effort and boost self esteem.
But, many people believe that this idea has negatively affected the youth.
Even though confidence in a child’s upbringing is crucial to their development. Some specialists agree that participation awards have a negative impact on a child’s development.
Expert David McCullough says “If everyone is special, then no one is. If everyone gets a trophy, trophies are meaningless.”
In many cases, participation awards promote the idea that just being somewhere and not putting in the time or effort will get you a prize.
According to author Nevin Martell, “Giving children participation awards at such a young age encourages them to develop the mindset that everyone is a winner.” Some of the most successful people credit their success to their failures and mistakes.
In order to succeed, children need to understand how to handle failure. When someone is handed a trophy for simply participating it sets up poor work ethic and lack of competition.
In the long run children should grow up understanding how to win and how to lose.
They also need to understand what happens when you work hard and that putting in effort pays off.
When everyone receives admiration and trophies regardless of effort it prepares children for poor work ethic and an unmotivated future.
By taking away participation awards it will allow authentic awards have value again.