Posted on 08/20/2014 5:51:15 PM PDT by TigerClaws
The latest Reason-Rupe poll finds that when it comes to kids and their trophies, 57 percent of Americans think only the winning players should receive them. Another 40 percent say all kids on a sport team should receive a trophy for their participation.
The desire for “every kid to get a trophy” strongly correlates with political beliefs. Fully 66 percent of Republicans want only the kids who win to receive trophies, while 31 percent say all kids on the team should receive them. In contrast, Democrats are evenly divided with 48 percent who say all kids, and another 48 percent who say only the winners should receive a trophy.
The competitive desire for winners to be rewarded correlates with fiscal conservatism. Among those who only think winners should get a trophy, 64 percent have a favorable view of capitalism, 64 percent thinks markets better solve problems than government, and 63 percent favor smaller government providing fewer services. In contrast, among those who think all kids should get a trophy, a plurality (49%) have an unfavorable view of capitalism, 50 percent thinks a strong government better solves problems than the free market, and 54 percent favor larger government providing more services.
(Excerpt) Read more at reason.com ...
My students felt their papers should be graded on how hard they work. The fact is they are graded on how good the papers are, whether you work 3 weeks, 3 nights, or 3 minutes on it. I told them that by their reasoning, the Greek exchange student should get an “A”, as English wasn’t his native language and he had to work the hardest and that everyone else should be graded down from there. Furthermore, do you want the best open heart surgeon or the hardest working surgeon; they are not necessarily the same thing.
You should not be a kid's coach. You obviously don't like kids, referring to them as brats. What the hell? And yes, all the kids should get equal playing time. It a game for cryin out loud!!!Just a game and the kids are all there to have fun. Relax and take a pill there coach.
“Equality” rewards mediocrity.
57% + 1.
I hate participation trophies as much as I hate parents who think their kid should be on the team because the mom makes good cookies and flirts.
57% + 1.
I hate participation trophies as much as I hate parents who think their kid should be on the team because the mom makes good cookies and flirts.
When everybody wins, nobody wins.
It is really worse than that.
Grandson was involved (at 14) in a tournament where the ‘winner’ of the “Losers Bracket” got basically the same recognition as the winner of the tournament.
So, in effect, they are better off coming in 8th (1st in losers bracket) than say 3rd for the tournament - though with that kind of ‘giving’ wouldn’t surprise me if EVERYONE didn’t get one.
I like the olde
“The winners laugh and joke while the losers say Shut Up and Deal”.
It sounds like you need to get with the socialist’s program. After all...America is being “transformed”.
When I was a kid, I participated in track, and often all of the athletes got a “certificate of participation”, but only the winners (top 3 to 5 places, usually) got trophies, ribbons, or medals.
And that's the way to do it, if you want to acknowledge participation. You can do that without diminishing the value of doing well and winning.
I'm a teacher - kids know who won anyway. And a kid who did their best but didn't win, would rather be acknowledged for what they did achieve (even if it was just participating) than be part of pretending they did better than they did.
The kids know. A participation trophy is a reminder of nothing...a token of mere existence.
A trophy of a win, any win in any competition, is a reminder of what it took to get there i.e. it’s educational in the most fundamental sense.
The truth is that helicopter parents want the trophies the most. They have so coddled their kids that they would rather give them a meaningless token rather than have them get a small taste of life’s realities. But sports are intended to be a structured, fun laboratory of life lessons. Kids learn through play at very early ages. They value rules and accept the outcomes. Parents who seek to eliminate the risk/reward and work/result dynamic are merely propagating cowardice.
I don’t see anything wrong with that at all. As long as the winners get recognized for their achievements, there’s nothing at all wrong with acknowledging everyone else’s participation appropriately.
Admittedy, I would make an exception for flirting ;)
The fact that only 57 percent agree with this proposition is disgusting.
Long ago, an Economics professor told my class that the genius of Capitalism, and its biggest advantage over Socialism and Communism, is that it allows people to fail. At the time, I did not fully appreciate what he meant. However, in the fullness of time and experience, I learned that he was correct. Failure is a means of communication to the person who fails. When you fail, you examine the reasons for that failure. It could be bad assumptions, underestimating the competition, or simply failing to try hard enough to succeed. The exact same calculus applies to sports. If a kid or team fails to win, they will suffer emotional pain. Not wishing to do so again, he or they will try to figure out why they lost and take actions to make sure that it will not happen again. However, when our pussified culture gives trophies to those who fail, it guarantees that the kids receiving those trophies won’t try harder the next time. That is, to me, absolutely unacceptable.
Kids shouldn’t get a participation ribbon.
Yet someONE can get the Noble Peace Prize for doing nothing.
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