I saw a story on this last night on Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel. It was focused in California (naturally, I suppose) and I found out kids were getting trophies for participation, not just in sports, but academics and other activities, until age 19!
I’ve known about this “self esteem” movement for a long time, but I always thought it was overblown. Apparently not. Kids are getting trophies just for signing up for activities, even if they never show up to participate. They give out ribbons for 17th place.
The reason I thought it was overblown was that it does not occur where I live, or at least I am not aware of it, and my kids did a lot of activities. It did when they were five and six, but not after that. Once kids get to the U10 level, they move to competitive level and the number of purely recreational teams (no cuts, everyone gets to play) shrinks to almost zero. By U13 they don’t exist as kids move on to things better suited to their talents.
In competitive activities you don’t get a trophy unless you win something, and the trophy goes to the team, not the individual. The only way you get individual recognition is by winning a Varsity letter or by making an All-State team.
What’s the culture where you are? Does it exist to any great extent once kids get to 8 or 9 years old?
BTW, the story was very good. They interviewed several academics with great credentials who said that this attitude hurts children, not helps them. One said a recent study of college students revealed that they feel deserving of at least a “B” for just showing up to most classes in a course.
Here goes another millennial bashing thread…
I blame the parents more than the kids. I know many kids and young adults from this generation that are just as hardworking and strive for results without pats on the back, as people from my generation and my parents’.
In my neck of the woods in the Midwest, you see a mix of participation ribbons, trophies, every-grade graduations, etc. But you also see true competition where only the winners get recognized for academics and sports. It depends upon which adults are in charge of the awards. Most kids realize that 17th place doesn’t account for much, or they eventually figure it out. As far as college kids expecting B’s just for attendance…who wouldn’t want it that way?
My son and daughter both did/do competitive sports in SoCal and that “everyone gets a trophy” myth is just a that. Some of the younger kids did get “Spirit Awards” or ribbons that was it. The cheer competitions my daughter does go no lower than 4th, though they do have multiple divisions.
I have trouble believing all this millennial BS. You know who complains at work more than anyone at work? The guys (I work entirely with males) who are 45+. "Oh we don’t get paid enough, of we don’t get enough vaction, why just why do I have to give notice about going on vacation during the busiest time for the business?’. Bitch, bitch, bitch, moan, moan, moan every day - for hours. And the rest of the time they talk about how much more they made in the past, "Oh, I worked at NASA, . . … I was a construction manager . . . " well not any more your not. Most millenials who didn’t graduate college could only dream of the life you had and the ease of your existence.
A trophy doesn’t mean the same thing to today’s kids as it did to us. It’s more of a souvenir than a fake symbol of accomplishment. I love to bash milennials as much as anyone, but I think this is harmless and encourages continuing activities even for those that are not the best at them. Considering that most American adults are not nearly active enough, encouraging kids to move around and have fun playing sports instead of focusing on competition may prove beneficial.
I played organized basketball in 1973, for a city recreation dept team (as opposed to a school). Our team went 2-12 that year. I got a trophy. Everyone on our team got a trophy.
Guess what? This isn’t a new phenomenon.
You know who I’ve seen complain the most at work? Everyone. Young and old. I’ve been working since 1978 in dozens of different companies and industries from warehouses to offices. In my entire working life, I doubt 2% of the people I’ve worked with would say they enjoy their jobs. When you ask how they’re doing, the most common answer is, “I’m here,” or “Is it Friday yet?” They bitch and moan about customers, pay, management, hours, you name it.
Northern California here - both my kids got trophies at the end of each soccer and basketball season. Yes, it is the parents - once we suggested they NOT get trophies, but instead something fun to remember the season and the time spent with their friends - “OHHH NOOOOES - we have to give them a trophy!” said some other parents. My son’s football team, OTOH, does not give trophies.
They are such a waste of time, energy, money and resources. While my kids probably appreciated getting one for the few moments where they were handed to them and recognized, once we got home it went on a shelf and became a forgotten dust collector. My daughter recently boxed-up all her old trophies to get rid of them - they have no meaning for her now, and probably never really did.
BTW, my kids also think they are stupid and a waste - they did not expect or want them. Most kids wont - it’s the parents.
Anyone know a constructive way to get rid of old trophies without sending them to the landfill?
about the only difference I’ve noticed over the years is in the news reporters. They’re expected to speak from authority, so that years ago that meant middle-age, vaguely hard-ass white men. Women media figures (as if anyone remembers Virginia Graham) drew their authority from being somewhat like society matrons. These people were Our Betters.
Now the male voices on the radio carry a hint of post-modernist ironic smart-assery, and the younger women, especially on NPR, have made no effort to lower and flatten the register of their voices as deeply as Jane Pauley or Jessica Savitch.
Which is progress for the good, since authority comes from truth, truth doesn’t come from authority. But still, they do sometimes sound like the vocalization of typical twentysomething egos: ascension with no visible means of support. They sound like they’ve bought into a tenet of the self-esteem credo: respect yourself and other people will respect you too. Well, not quite. You still need to accomplish difficult things for that to happen.
The kids in my soccer league got little trophies for being on the team–this was in what, second grade, about 1981–and yeah, I didn’t consider it a Real Trophy. It was a souvenir and I liked it, but it wasn’t a proper trophy like you’d get if you won a tournament or something. (Maybe the winning team did get big trophies, I don’t know, we won one game all year.)
I agree with the souvenir thing. A memory hook. It wasn’t presented as an award. But maybe they are, sometimes.
I remember missing out on some academic award that came with a small scholarship. The guy who won had “a more impressive record”, in that his school apparently gave awards for ass-wiping and not eating paste. Or at least that’s what my bitter 17 year old self thought all those years ago.
Some school, maybe Hopkins? offered me a “prestigious fellowship” for grad school. A whopping $750 above the typical tuition waiver and stipend. I’m wondering if they did that as a way of padding resumes or something.
My boys played a number of sports on a number of levels, and in many of them, they got some type of ‘award’, no matter how well they or their team did. But children aren’t fools, and while those ‘participation’ awards got tossed in the back of the closet, the ones that they received for genuine achievement got pride of place on their bookcases.
To the poster looking for a home for unwanted trophies, we gave ours to a friend who’s a special ed teacher. She spray painted them all with gold and glitter and uses them as daily awards for her students when they make a breakthrough. The student gets to display their award on their desk for the remainder of the day. The blingier she makes them, the better they like them.
For the most part around here its a trophy for everyone but there are enough exceptions to give you options if that bothers you. Not so much in the interscholastic field but in various clubs.
Also why put kids in sports? If it’s to learn about competition, how to win, how to lose, then participation trophies doesn’t make sense.
But if it’s to make sure kids are moving, and get into the habit of excising, then I don’t see how it hurts. Like other people said, kids figure out pretty quickly if everyone has the same “thing”, that “thing” is not special.
This, plus “meh”, pretty much sums up my feelings on this. I used to be a PE teacher and sports coach in youth sports, and I was done with this issue 20 years ago when I had irate parents demanding to know why our school’s Field Day was designed to be fun, rather than total war to the death with the bodies burned and defiled. And this was a K-2 school!
For chrissake, not everything has to be a high stakes life lesson. Let 'em play and have pizza with their friends afterward. Give out trophies or don’t, but the folks who are all spun about this are missing the point.
Me and some guys from work did a Spartan race last year. Everyone who finishes gets a medal and a trophy.
The “medal for just showing up” thing doesn’t bother me. We used to get them in little league. It obviously doesn’t mean the same thing as the State Championship trophy.
The mindset of getting a B just for showing up to a college class bothers me a bit. The whole point of college grades is to demonstrate that you gained some level mastery over the course work. That attitude seems to translate to the workplace where graduates are complaining about companies not hiring them or not being able to find the “right” job.
The real world is competitive. Not because people are trying to be “mean” to you, but simply because companies want the best people to do the job.
We get participation “trophies” all the time in adulthood. I don’t see why kids shouldn’t either.
I have a number of coworkers who get recognized every year at our annual awards ceremony for simply being assigned to a “good” team. Every team has folks who bust ass. And every team has someone who does the bare minimum, if that much. But everyone gets the same plaque in the end.
And don’t forget. We all know people who get a paycheck for shitty work.
I received participation trophies when I was a little kid. And they didn’t warp me none because I was intelligent enough to know that they weren’t special. The special trophies were reserved for the special individuals. As long as special awards continue to be handed out, I don’t have a problem with giving everyone a smaller, less shiny trophy.
