When I was 9 years old and the starting pitcher for the Giants in Evergreen Park’s junior league, I remember my devastation after losing our first game by walking 13 batters over three innings. Afterward, my mother greeted me with a hug, an ice-cold bottle of Hires Root Beer and the welcome consolation that only two of my opponents were actually able to hit my wicked pitches.
This Mother’s Day, I don’t think I’m going out on a limb by saying that my mom, Gertrude McGrath, essentially invented the participation trophy. Not the actual statue made out of gold-painted metal or plastic with a wooden or marble base. Rather, she pioneered the concept in the 1960s of presenting a trophy or, at least, soothing a child with compliments, even when they do not win.
Such trophies have been reviled by some old-school parents and tough, Mike Ditka-style coaches. The belief is that these trophies make kids soft and incentivizes laziness and lukewarm effort since they know they’ll get by and even rewarded for doing nothing at all.article writes that participation trophies are good for children insofar as they build their confidence and bolster the social dynamic with their peers.
“The argument that participation trophies somehow keep kids from experiencing the ‘real world’ of winning and losing crumbles in this context.” Some might consider such a gift a curse that gives false hope, setting up the recipient for emotional collapse when they fail.
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