Should Kids Get A Trophy For Showing Up Essay

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Pages: 3

Has society spoiled children to the point where they feel as if they deserve a trophy just for being alive? In the article, "Should Kids Get A Trophy For Showing Up?" by Mary Turner, it states, "I remember collecting a shelf full of participation trophies from years of playing YMCA soccer. Did they make me who I am ... or spoil me rotten?" (Paragraph 3). Children who are given participation trophies just by showing up to a sport or club will strip their desire to work hard and will affect them in the future. To begin with, participation trophies are unnecessary and pointless because children are aware that they do not have to work hard if they are going to be overvalued by adults for showing no effort anyways. Constant recognition will make kids sense the idea that they are already perfect …show more content…
Moreover, if everyone recieves a participation trophy the trophy will become insignificent because every kid will obtain one. For instance, I participated in Worldquest, a team competition that tests high school students' knowledge. At the end of the day, every student who showed up recieved a participation trophy. In all honesty, my team and I did not take first place in the event, but recieving a participation award felt like a slap in the face. However, as we witnessed the winning team being congratulated a competitive fire lit inside of us making us say, "Yeah, we tried hard, however, we did not win. Yet, that's okay because we all see how hard the winning team tried to deserve their position in 1st place. Next year, we will strive for 1st place to recieve an actual award, not a pointless participation award." That is to say, kids should learn to believe that no matter how insufficient effort they put into their work, they shouldn't recieve any kind of recognition for simply participating. In the article, it mentions, "At what time of [a child's] life do we want to bring home the cruel reality that