Editor,
I am truly amazed at the depth of Natalie Doud’s understanding of the “participation trophy” (Student News column, “The truth behind the shiny participation trophy” in the Dec. 17 edition of the Daily Journal).
Editor,
I am truly amazed at the depth of Natalie Doud’s understanding of the “participation trophy” (Student News column, “The truth behind the shiny participation trophy” in the Dec. 17 edition of the Daily Journal).
I have had similar discussions in regards to the problem with my children (age 38 and 37) who remember vividly the change in attitude and behavior which occurred during their young years when we began to see everyone receiving an equal reward. Instead of giving some who had overachieved extra rewards, the entire crowd was awarded the same medallion/trophy. It was as clear then as it is today that this did nothing to encourage the lesser athletes to work to improve their skills. As Ms. Doud mentions, this “sugarcoats the implications of failures” and in fact does blind those so affected to a wave of shock as they fail later on.
I am sincerely impressed by Ms. Doud’s understanding of this situation and urge her peers to listen closely to her words.
Frank Merrill Jr., DVM
Atherton
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(3) comments
Dr. Merrill
I agree. Young folks will be shocked when they fail later in life and learn the real world is a lot different than the artificial world that rewards all with participation trophies.
Thomas Sowell... better known for his commentary on economics and politics, once said, "Equality of rights does not mean equality of results. I can have all the equal treatment in the world on a golf course and I will not finish within shouting distance of Tiger Woods."
I agree - our 3 children, now in their forties, left shelves full of trophies in our house. They even acknowledged then that they were meaningless and never looked at them again and refused to take them when they moved to their own homes. Our grandchildren are now coming home with similar atrocious looking trophies that are now twice as large.
Well written, Dr. Merrill. Unfortunately, we may need to reinstate participation trophies for women’s sports because thanks to Biden’s executive order allowing biological men to compete in women’s sports, actual biological women may not win many, if any, championship trophies in the future.
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