The Importance Of Positive Reinforcement

BEEP! The whistle blows. The kids go homes with a trophy, what about the kids that won? Are they the same as everyone else? Some think that participation trophies are positive reinforcement. As you can tell I strongly disagree with this.
Generally speaking, you can try your best and not get the outcome you were expecting, but the sad fact is that most of life is like that. The author of the first article that I read said that there is time to get acquainted with reality (Website 1). James Harrison was talking about his kids on twitter and said “they didn’t earn their trophies.” I remember my own father leaving my participation medal on the fence on the football field for losing all our games in the tournament (Website 1). I knew I didn’t earn that trophy and that was a big learning stage in my
life.
My second point on the topic would be little kids will be more willing to win or give their best effort if there is only one winner. Why should kids want to strive to improve themselves if they always win or get a medal (Website 1). Eventually, they will start stopping to learn from mistakes. Ashlyn Merryman an author of Top Dog says “the benefit of competition isn't winning it's improving (Website 2). Overall these lessons we are teaching our kids will damage them for life, giving them bad habits, for their jobs”. My last point is in favor of the kids that succeed and win. Giving participation awards undermines the kid's success in the sport. The children that rise above the rest and succeed, just get the same prize as everyone else? I disagree that those kids are the same, kids should be able to stand out. I have learned from personal experience
that when you put in the work night after night, when you don’t really feel like it takes a toll, and when you get the same award as all the kids you beat, just makes you even more frustrated. I think kids shouldn’t get participation awards.
On the other hand, participation trophies and awards can be positive reinforcement (Website 3). Positive reinforcement should be a natural thing for kids to get, but not through sports. Parents who start thinking that trophies are good for their kids only backfires on them later down the road. For example, my dad knew a friends kid who was used to winning and getting medals all the time, but once they started losing and not getting trophies and awards he quit the sport all together. Another point people brought up was that not giving medals out is discouraging (Website 3). This may be true, but this example is only preparing them for the future. The points brought up by people are true, but they aren’t the right reason to do them.
I strongly disagree with the belief of participation trophies. The people can try their best and still not succeed, which prepares them for the challenge of life. One person winner causes incentive for children. For the kids who win, participation trophies weaken their success. Participation trophies are bad for kids all the way around.