I agree with the OP in general, but specifically for the age group that is being spoken of, I don’t. If we’re talking about the best blue colorer, I’m assuming that this is kindergarten or earlier. At that age kids really do feel like they did something special when they get that award and I think that giving that taste of what success and recognition feels like can encourage them to try and achieve recognition later in life when it actually means something.
If my 4 year old son won some award at his pre-school for best colorer, I might put that in my status on FB, but not in some, “wow my son is great” sort of way, but an “isn’t it cute how my son is excited about this minor award” sort of way.
But beyond that, and especially in sport, you can’t have every team winning the league - and kids need to learn that.
I agree with your intent, but I disagree with the method. Handing out BS trophies (which the kids themselves realize are BS), doesn’t boost self-esteem in a constructive manner.
There is a basic equation that kids many times don’t learn throughout their lives, for many different reasons (remember, not all kids are the same).
Instruction + Effort = Results. Those results THEMSELVES, are the reward. If you teach kids that instruction + effort = reward (in the form of a damn trophy), you are raising a generation of “hey, I did my bare minimum, where is my pat on the back?”. It is a setup, if taken to an extreme.
Like I frequently say to others: “A good idea is always a good idea, until you take it too far”. This here is one of those ideas that is good, but it is being taken too far and we are diluting these kids (in some cases, not all), into thinking that all efforts will produce the same results, and that we all get to be (despite our shortcomings and what not) super stars worthy of acclaim and attention.
Real life is much different. I agree school shouldn’t be a stress filled environment, but it should be a pre-face to what life will be like someday for these kids. At some point, they will be rudely awakened to the truth, and then we will have a hoard of disgruntled adults who are disappointed in life and ungrateful of what they have.
The local suburban rag periodically contains lists acknowledging academic achievement at area schools. Recently one school had a list for “Dean’s List” and another list approximately the same length for “Commendable Effort.” I thought that a tad odd.
If your kids are getting diluted, you should tell them to concentrate more.
And if your goal is to raise a child’s self esteem, verbal praise should be sufficient, in my opinion. Printed certificates to take home…are for the parent’s self esteem.
And what’s more, that their entire evening or Saturday is going to be wasted by the time it takes to give every single kid their bullshit award individually.
But hey, I used to date a guy who played rec baseball, in an over 30 league, and I’m pretty sure nearly every one of those guys got a trophy for *something *at the end-of-season banquet. I’m also pretty sure most of them would have preferred to spend the two or three hours handing out the awards took actually drinking and dancing and enjoying what was supposed to be a freakin’ party.
I’m not the person you quoted, but at my high school, you got a GPA bump for taking honors classes and the like. So get lots of As in honors classes and you’re over 4.0.
You people just reminded me that I won an award on the first Little League baseball team I ever played on. It wasn’t a trophy or anything, although they did eventually start giving out small trophies for participation. It was a sheet of paper printed out form one of those old dot matrix printers. I was
MOST TALKATIVE PLAYER
Well, whaddaya want? I was maybe six and I was never any good at baseball.
The awards cited in the OP and many of the others discussed here are stupid, although the goal of encouraging kids isn’t a bad one - you don’t do them any favors when you shield them from the idea that sometimes you fall short and have to improve. It’s worth noting, though, that even when they gave us participation trophies in Little League, everybody still knew the difference between winning and losing. Kids can be stupid but they’re not that stupid. We knew who won more games, who the best players were, who won the championship trophy and the big game at the end of the year, how disappointing it was to lose… it’s not like you can cover that up by giving kids a littler trophy. Maybe children have gotten stupider, but I doubt it. Probably it’s just one more empty ritual.
In the south at any rate, an 8th grade graduation ceremony has been traditional for some time. This is because particularly in rural communities and for blue collar workers high school was long regarded as optional. My memory is that sixth grade was the last mandatory grade for my grandfather´s generation (in his case in California) so I don´t know where the fifth grade thing comes in.
Was this in the sense of being the kid who’d chant “heybatterbatterheybatterbatterSWING!” like my old coaches always wanted us to do, or were you the kid who’d be at bat, and would be chatting with the catcher instead of watching the ball?
The way I remember it, I gave our batters a lot more encouragement than they actually needed, and when I wasn’t in the field I probably gave our pitchers and catchers that kind of ‘way to go’ stuff, too.
I couldn’t talk to the catcher instead of watch the ball. They can’t hear you from the outfield.
I was in a bowling league a few years back. We sucked. We knew it. We didn’t care. We were there to eat too much, drink too much, and have a good time. I’d say we were wildly successful at that. There were some trophies. First place, second place etc. We set our sites on the joke trophy for last place. It was the back end of a horse, all gold and shiny. We WANTED that Horse’s Ass trophy. The whole thing was a joke, and we rightly took it that way. Unfortunately there was a team even worse, and they got it
In my daughter’s school they traded the *My kid made honor roll at blah blah school *to *at Blah Blah school we honor ALL our students. * I refuse to put that on my car and I haven’t seen many of them on bumpers during drop off in the morning. The honor roll sticker meant something was achieved. I see this one as free advertising for the private school.
I’ve “won” one of those - for worst net in the (golf) club championships. Was called the 'Dumb Bumb Cup" and made from an old piston with a golf ball mounted on it…took pride of place on my mantle for a year.
