I was at an estate/antique sale earlier today, and saw an old, fancy, large (probably 15x20 inches), elaborately framed “diploma” for sale.
It certified that (child’s name) had successfully passed the test for the Palmer Cursive Writing Method.
So much for “everyone gets a trophy” being a new thing. :rolleyes:
p.s. Don’t believe in that philosophy? Don’t sign your kids up for activities that do it.
how does passed equal to participation?
Because at least back in the day, it was close enough.
You should have seen this thing. At the same sale were some university diplomas, also from back in the day, that weren’t as fancy.
The Palmer Method was developed in 1888 and was quite popular through the 1910/1920s. Not many people even went to school in those days.
I learned cursive via the Palmer Method in the early 1970s.
Runningcoach, you do have a point. I suppose in many circumstances, this might have been some people’s only opportunity to have some kind of certificate, because out of the people who did go to school, many if not most didn’t even go to high school, let alone graduate.
Are you even sure it was for a child? Here is a sample letter that a student of the Palmer Method would submit to the organization for a certificate. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/Palmer_Method_sample.jpg
Regardless, I don’t think giving a certificate for completion of a program or block of instruction is the same as “participation trophies”. Everyone who graduates High School gets a diploma; as they should. That isn’t a participation trophy. That is earned for successful completion of high school. I don’t think you understand what a participation trophy is.
Trophies are awards, like medals, given to winners of competitions. Trophies are earned for doing better than others. They are not analogous to diplomas or certificates.
“Participation Trophies” are given out to everyone regardless of performance or ranking in order to protect the feelings of losing players or teams. They are worse than even consolation prizes because every single player gets one, and everyone’s trophies are the same.
If a player received a certificate for the successful completion of a year of Little League baseball, people would not object to that as much as they object to everyone being handed a trophy. It would be like everyone at the Olympics getting a medal or every team getting a Superbowl ring. It cheapens the award if everyone gets the same thing.
Yeah, a participation trophy is more like getting a diploma for showing up half the time for high school, whether you passed any classes or not. The certificate nearwildheaven describes seems more like the certificates I get for completing employer-specific training at work - they say I completed and passed the training , but it seems kind of silly to frame and display them.
Actually, in most of the activities my kids were involved in , there were still medals and trophies and plaques based on rank. First, second and maybe third place got actual trophies or medals or plaques and everyone else got ribbons or a cheap plastic thing or certificate with the name of the league or event on it.Which makes the participation awards kind of pointless , as the kids can see the difference between the participation award and the first-place trophy.
And as far as not signing your kids up for activities that do it - IME, that’s pretty much impossible unless you don’t sign your kid up for activities at all. The only activities that don’t do it are the higher level ones- like the traveling baseball team that requires try-outs rather than “everybody plays”. And in order to make one of those teams, the kid will have to first play in an “everybody plays” league, and they all give "participation awards.
I wouldn’t consider this to be what everyone is upset about when discussing participation trophies. Your league seems to be doing it right. Your league appears to be giving out mementos rather than actual trophies or medals. Nothing wrong with that at all. Had they decided to give out large golden trophies to everyone who played, regardless of rank or performance it would be a different matter.
Yep I’ve still got more 1989-90 season medal for being one of the lesser players on a junior soccer team that lost every single game (quite often by a 10+ goal margin and twice by a 20+ goal margin) and only scored 2 or 3 goals through out the whole season (we had a few terrible players, but I think what really killed us was that we were a brand new team and the other teams had much more experience playing organized 11-a-side on a full-size pitch, a couple of years later the team dominated the league while still retaining a number of the original players).
This is exactly what I meant by a participation trophy.
The frame, glass, etc. for this poster-sized certificate weren’t new, either.
I think you might be underestimating the importance of the certificate. Earning such a certificate in a time when the literacy rate was below 90% was probably a big deal. Not to mention the fact that the Palmer method was specifically designed to allow faster writing that could compete with a typewriter. This was likely a marketable skill in that time.
Or maybe I am overestimating its importance.
