Participation Trophies

It all started with participation trophies – kids receiving awards simply for showing up, for doing what they’re supposed to do. They are receiving validation from a worthless, meaningless plastic trophy that eventually gets stuffed in a closet, and forgotten – an unearned guaranteed award, a shiny contradiction in terms. Awards are not awards if they’re guaranteed. An award requires merit. If we remove merit, then we remove the meaning of the award. But at some point, adults believed that it was unfair that some kids got a trophy and others didn’t, and that certain kids were recognized for their achievements, and others weren’t. So, they made it that all you had to do was participate, and you were rewarded.

When I was in Little League, you received a trophy if you won the championship, if you were the MVP of the team, or if you were the most improved player. And that was it. If you didn’t do any of those three things, you didn’t get a trophy. And we were fine with it. Everyone knew who the best player on the team was, and we were okay with him getting recognized for that because we lived in reality back then. I played on many teams where I didn’t get a trophy, and that did not hurt my self-esteem one bit. In fact, not getting a trophy motivated me to work harder so the next year I would get recognized.

This participation trophy mindset has infected our younger generations. It has created generations of kids who need to be constantly validated regardless of what they did or how well they did it. They must be praised continuously, told how good they are, how special they are, that they accomplished something even though they hadn’t. Rather than building the child’s self-esteem on legitimate accomplishments, the participation trophy warps and distorts the child’s self-esteem because they are based on a lie, on nothing. And in the end, that is much more damaging to a child’s self-esteem then the disappointment of not earning a legitimate trophy.