When I was in elementary school in the 80s the school would have us compete in various exercise activities. The top three would get the standard gold, silver, and bronze patches for their successes while everyone else would get a participation patch of some kind. No one took those seriously.
It was almost embarrassing to get one.
And there's a simple explanation as to why few of us, if any, kept those patches and likely threw them in the garbage. There's no inherent value in pumping people up with empty self-esteem.
We were honest with ourselves when measured against others. Sore losers like me would take a little longer to accept not winning but even competitive people eventually come around to accepting their results and place among competitors.
There's no reason to patronize kids with ribbons for merely participating.
Here's why in my view.
Participation trophies undermine effort and talent.
That is, the success is the effort you put in. If you don't win that's okay. The fact you completed a specific activity while giving it your all is priceless. It's an inherently personal thing. You may not get a gold medal but the satisfaction in trying is gold.
Satisfaction is derived from the effort you put in to achieve a result. It may not be top three, but the victory is in the process of adhering to discipline and self-belief.
Handing over a ribbon for that seems to miss the point of the whole endeavour.
If you want a trophy you size up your result and measure it against the top performers. Then, you work towards to achieving their results. Even then, the desired result may not happen because talent comes into play.
These days though the thinking is if you don't give a ribbon you're hurting someone's feelings. Nothing can be further from the truth. First off, most kids who aren't into sports don't give a hoot about that stuff. Second, kids can be resilient and aren't such soft snowflakes. And finally, it only inflates someone's actually worth artificially. That they got some measure of recognition may compel them to believe they're better than they actually are.
They'll be in for a rude awakening in the real world. So it's better to not coddle kids in this manner in my opinion.
There are no safe spaces out there.
It was almost embarrassing to get one.
And there's a simple explanation as to why few of us, if any, kept those patches and likely threw them in the garbage. There's no inherent value in pumping people up with empty self-esteem.
We were honest with ourselves when measured against others. Sore losers like me would take a little longer to accept not winning but even competitive people eventually come around to accepting their results and place among competitors.
There's no reason to patronize kids with ribbons for merely participating.
Here's why in my view.
Participation trophies undermine effort and talent.
That is, the success is the effort you put in. If you don't win that's okay. The fact you completed a specific activity while giving it your all is priceless. It's an inherently personal thing. You may not get a gold medal but the satisfaction in trying is gold.
Satisfaction is derived from the effort you put in to achieve a result. It may not be top three, but the victory is in the process of adhering to discipline and self-belief.
Handing over a ribbon for that seems to miss the point of the whole endeavour.
If you want a trophy you size up your result and measure it against the top performers. Then, you work towards to achieving their results. Even then, the desired result may not happen because talent comes into play.
These days though the thinking is if you don't give a ribbon you're hurting someone's feelings. Nothing can be further from the truth. First off, most kids who aren't into sports don't give a hoot about that stuff. Second, kids can be resilient and aren't such soft snowflakes. And finally, it only inflates someone's actually worth artificially. That they got some measure of recognition may compel them to believe they're better than they actually are.
They'll be in for a rude awakening in the real world. So it's better to not coddle kids in this manner in my opinion.
There are no safe spaces out there.
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