Growing up, we might have chased after shiny trophies and medals, the same ones our idols smiled and posed with in front of flashing cameras, whether they were athletes, Olympians, artists or whoever.
The trophies we originally used as encouragement to succeed are now harmful tokens distributed to everyone.
Usually, accolades are given to elite competitors.
Participation trophies have blurred the lines between elite and possibly below-average contenders by giving a false sense of accomplishment to those who exert minimal effort.
Failing builds a sense of urgency to succeed at the first opportunity.
Some may argue that participation awards may boost the confidence of young competitors who did not experience the hardships of failure. They will later develop a sense of entitlement given the fact they have not learned what it is like to earn success in return for hard work.
Children should learn how to fail, to learn and develop. One does not technically fail if they are handed a title of recognition for simply participating. Falling short of our accomplishments teaches us that disappointment will come.
Failing will also spawn a thirst for greatness.
Being present is too low of a bar to set for impressionable children or young adults.
Many will justify this poor attempt at positive reinforcement as a good way of teaching responsibility or the value of taking time out of your day to participate in team activities.
Children, and perhaps adults, too, will soon disregard team building, trust and intrinsic motivation once each participant sees that they are recognized for only attending
the event. They will cut down on working or training hard, because if their goal is to collect awards, then an award is an award, despite the title.
In the real world, simply showing up will not be good enough and will not help them prosper in their preferred field. We should all be learning to push past the expectations, not limiting ourselves during our journey to success.
Not to mention, these “trophies” might inspire narcissism.
As each child receives a participation award, they will feel as if they are the most skilled and talented, no matter how much or little skill they have for that competition.
Through allowing all to receive the same level of recognition, we create a false sense of accomplishment in the competitors who did not put forth the same effort as the harder-working peers.
If we were to continue to give them participation awards, they will lose the intrinsic value and motivation to compete and excel among worthy competitors. They will only grow lazy as they soon realize that, regardless of the effort invested in the sport or craft, they will receive an award, nonetheless.
Once we eliminate this concept of participation awards, children’s path to success in the real world will be better paved.
To solve this issue, as we continue to build children’s self-esteem, other ways of recognition could be a certificate acknowledging their area of expertise.
For instance, in sports, though the team may not have won, each participant could still be awarded superlatives, such as “Most Improved,” “Best Spirit,” “Most Valuable Player,”and so on. These awards would be more encouraging since they highlight each member’s skill and boost their self-esteem as it is more personalized than a title awarded to everyone.
This is only one idea to eliminate participation awards, though I strongly believe it can ignite those who lose to become a greater version of themselves.
