Tearing Children Down...Or is it Lifting Them Up?

I was scrolling through my Facebook newsfeed and came across a very interesting article. The article was about James Harrison, a Pittsburgh Steelers player,who had come home one night to find that his sons had received trophies. However, Harrison was not all that pleased with this because the boys had received the trophies for their participation and not because they had earned it. Here is what he posted to social media:

“I came home to find out that my boys received two trophies for nothing, participation trophies! While I am very proud of my boys for everything they do and will encourage them till the day I die, these trophies will be given back until they EARN a real trophy. I’m sorry I’m not sorry for believing that everything in life should be earned and I’m not about to raise two boys to be men by making them believe that they are entitled to something just because they tried their best…cause sometimes your best is not enough, and that should drive you to want to do better…not cry and whine until somebody gives you something to shut u up and keep you happy. #harrisonfamilyvalues” James Harrison

I must say that I agree with him; children should have to earn their trophy instead of be handed it for the general fact that they participated in the activity, with a few exceptions. Here is the question that I ask myself, and many people should to ask themselves, when considering whether or not participation trophies are good: Who is it that we are dealing with?

Let's say you are a middle class, middle school student playing football recreationally. When the season is over, your team was sixth place over all of the eight teams in the division. At the end-of-season party (again, something that I don't always agree with if the reason is wrong) each player on your team is handed a trophy, made of cheap plastic, that has the name of the division, Football Participant, and the year; not that you as a ten or eleven year old would know that. You feel so proud of yourself that you continue to play recreationally for the next four years till you get to high school. At this point you have been playing for so long, and receiving a trophy for it that in your head you believe that you must be so good at football. With this mentality, you go try out for the high school varsity team. Unfortunately, you don't even make the JV team. Your little heart is crushed and you throw  all your equipment and trophies away, never to play again. 

For this child, they will likely experience problems as they go through high school because they may feel jealous of those that did make the team or those that made the team will tease this child for not making it. Additionally, his hopes of going to college on a football scholarship have now been crushed as he can't even make a JV high school team. Is giving them hope through a trophy that means virtually nothing to then brutally tear that hope away when the child does not make the team worth it?

Okay, now let's say that you are a middle class, special needs, middle school child playing football with other special needs children. They, too, receive a participation trophy at the end of the season but, are the consequences the same? Although it is possible for the consequences to be the same, the chances of that happening are smaller. Unfortunately, in today's society, special needs children are out-casted and often will not try out for high school sports teams. Additionally, high school is an important time for these young adults to learn how to support themselves and provide for themselves so sports participation can sometimes be put on the back burner. With that being said, by giving a special needs child a participation trophy they can proudly say "I did this!" and for some special needs children, just being able to have a trophy or metal that says they participated in something that was probably challenging for them is enough for them. They don't ask for more.

See the difference? As I said before, I whole-heartedly agree with what Harrison did. But, as I tried to explain here, are all participation trophies as bad as we make them out to be? I do not believe so because for some people, participating once is enough of an accomplishment for them.