In one Instagram post, Steelers linebacker James Harrison managed to spark outrage in some and gain praise from others regarding the “everybody-is-a-winner” mentality that accompanies participation trophies.
Harrison said in the post, “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 [until] the day I die, these trophies will be given back until they EARN a real trophy.”
Coddling and helicopter parenting, as it was coined, often leads to a selfish sense of entitlement in a child where they believe they should be granted all their desires and be spoon fed for all of their needs. The child goes on to expect to be given things without putting in any work for it.
Some call the real “Generation Entitlement” the Baby Boomers who wrecked the economy before the Millennials were even born; however, if that’s the case, the Millennials are “Generation Entitlement 2.0.” Entitlement manifests in any permutation of the following: general laziness, fatigue and protest, feelings of attack or discomfort and looking for praise and validation when required to perform ordinary tasks such as chores or having a job. Please seek medical attention immediately if you think your child is growing up with a misguided sense of entitlement. Complications include unemployment, starvation and even death.
Participation trophies are merely a physical representation of the child’s sense of entitlement. There’s a difference between telling a child that he can do or get whatever he wants and telling him that he has to work for what he wants. There’s a difference between being handed a trophy and earning one.
In response to Harrison’s post, a Times Union writer argued that trophies for participation actually encourage children to be active and play a sport and that there is an inherent “value of simply participating in youth sports.” He said that Harrison’s actions reflect the belief that everything is about winning and losing, when, in reality, we should be teaching kids the opposite.
The flaw in these arguments is that feeding into an entitled attitude isn’t a good way to motivate children to play a sport. If that was the case, we’d give children A’s on all of their homework assignments and tests just for participating and filling in the answers; instead of rewarding students who actually work hard to get an A, we’d pat them all on the back for trying. How then would we differentiate between an A-student and a D-student? The same applies in sports. The thought process behind participation trophies is that athletes who go above and beyond get awards like MVP, Most Improved, All-Star or any variation thereof, while everyone else gets a participation trophy that essentially says, “You did it! You showed up!” The player could have missed every practice and spent less than one minute on the field or court, and they’re automatically given a trophy for something they get for none other than existing and coming to the game.
Participation trophies can be seen as a token of appreciation for coming out and having a good time. But, it’s easy to see why a professional athlete like Harrison would spurn such an idea. Yes, admittedly, Harrison’s 8- and 6-year-old sons are nowhere near a professional caliber—their athletics have to be just for fun at this point—but it’s very hard to disagree with a parenting style that denies the automatic I-deserve-this-privilege attitude all too common in today’s children, adolescents and young adults.
But, here comes the plot twist: according to SB Nation, an online sports news outlet, the trophies weren’t just for participation; the inscriptions on the trophies read “Best of the Batch” and were from Charlie Batch’s Best of the Batch Foundation, specifically the Next Level Athletics Track Club. According to its website, the club aims to “motivate student-athletes to aspire to achieve leadership, self-discipline, sportsmanship, integrity and a sense of teamwork.” It can’t be said that Harrison’s sons were just handed the trophies because, in order to get into the program, participants had to attend mandatory tutoring. But the fact still remains that giving participation trophies to everyone who isn’t a winner validates losing and tells kids, “Hey, at least you tried.”
The great thing about sports is that, with practice, it’s possible to improve. That’s the ultimate idea behind any game: to strive for greatness. And, a quote from the Bible neatly sums up the goal of parenting: “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Mix these two concepts together, and you avoid entitlement like the plague that it is.
You will have children with enough athletic potential to be good but just haven’t reached peak performance yet. But, what better way to help them develop their skills than to take a silly participation trophy away and tell them to aim for the best? How is doing that detrimental? As the saying goes, not everybody’s varsity.
