Do Participation Trophies Cause More Harm Than Good?

Many people believe that children should receive participation trophies. They believe that being rewarded for playing their sport can positively affect their personal development. When I was a little kid, I felt that getting participation trophies made me feel good about myself. It made me feel like I was getting rewarded for my hard work. Kids are shown how good it is to be a member of a team, and how important the effort of every person is. 

Giving a child a participation trophy can boost their self-esteem, making them want to play another sport or push themselves to work harder. Children need that boost of self-esteem to let them know that all the effort they put into this team has worked. Participation trophies represent their effort. They can create confidence and pride for kids that might not be the best. By giving them these trophies, you can tell kids they did a good job even if they still have things to improve on. Teachers use similar methods to get kids to learn. Should we take away stickers from kindergartners because they didn’t earn it? Every kid should receive a participation trophy for their hard work and know that they did a good job. They all should receive feedback on what they did. That’s how they can improve.

On the other hand, other people believe participation trophies take away all the hard work and commitment provided by the players. Players need to learn from their loss to get better. By rewarding every player with a trophy or medal takes away all the pain needed to get better. Lots of people believe that participation trophies are a waste. If a child believes that everyone is a winner, they don’t want to work hard and push themselves to work even harder than other kids on their team. If you keep giving these trophies to the kids, they will just expect them and not work hard at all. As a child gets older and they lose a game and not get a trophy, that kid will not understand that the losing team doesn’t get anything. They will feel that they are still entitled to a trophy.

I believe that giving kids participation trophies should not be handed out. What is your opinion on this controversial matter?