FA+
Shop
little discussion
9 years ago
General
so this really isn't currently relevant to me i guess but i feel like talking about it anyway
but a local news facebook page here posted a story about a dad who took away his little girl's participation ribbon and said something like "You didn't win, so you didn't earn this"
99% of the comments on that were giving that dad tremendous praise and also complaining that participation trophies/ribbons being given out are part of the reason that "we have so many entitled man-bun wearing pansies" as one commenter so eloquently put it
and i'm not terribly exaggerating lol out of about 50 or so comments i only saw 2 that were defending participation awards (and one said that she felt they were bad for kids but just didn't have the heart to take them away from her kids)
so I kinda have to give my two cents here (and feel free to disagree, i'm mostly open to debate haha)
in my school the only awards ever given out were for athletic events, meaning that scrawny little me literally never once won any awards other than participation ribbons. And i wasn't looking at them thinking "gee, they gave me a ribbon, so i must've won" - kids aren't that stupid. i knew full well that they were just giving me a ribbons so i wouldn't feel as bad. i mean i do think that kids should learn how to lose gracefully, how to realize that sometimes you can do your best and still not win, but i don't think giving them a ribbon and telling them they're not a loser for trying is going to magically transform them into selfish brats who think they deserve things without working hard for them - and honestly it's really unfair to assume that every kid who loses simply isn't trying hard enough. if you're a tiny skinny kid who's never played sports, then it should come as no surprise that my best efforts in the 100 yard dash are going to come up painfully short to half the effort of the kid who's been playing sports since he was 5. i don't think those other kids should be berated for losing and told they didn't try hard enough.
i dunno i can kinda understand the argument though. but i don't think anybody's parenting is going to come completely unraveled just because they don't yell at their kids for accepting participation awards and angrily snatch them away
but a local news facebook page here posted a story about a dad who took away his little girl's participation ribbon and said something like "You didn't win, so you didn't earn this"
99% of the comments on that were giving that dad tremendous praise and also complaining that participation trophies/ribbons being given out are part of the reason that "we have so many entitled man-bun wearing pansies" as one commenter so eloquently put it
and i'm not terribly exaggerating lol out of about 50 or so comments i only saw 2 that were defending participation awards (and one said that she felt they were bad for kids but just didn't have the heart to take them away from her kids)
so I kinda have to give my two cents here (and feel free to disagree, i'm mostly open to debate haha)
in my school the only awards ever given out were for athletic events, meaning that scrawny little me literally never once won any awards other than participation ribbons. And i wasn't looking at them thinking "gee, they gave me a ribbon, so i must've won" - kids aren't that stupid. i knew full well that they were just giving me a ribbons so i wouldn't feel as bad. i mean i do think that kids should learn how to lose gracefully, how to realize that sometimes you can do your best and still not win, but i don't think giving them a ribbon and telling them they're not a loser for trying is going to magically transform them into selfish brats who think they deserve things without working hard for them - and honestly it's really unfair to assume that every kid who loses simply isn't trying hard enough. if you're a tiny skinny kid who's never played sports, then it should come as no surprise that my best efforts in the 100 yard dash are going to come up painfully short to half the effort of the kid who's been playing sports since he was 5. i don't think those other kids should be berated for losing and told they didn't try hard enough.
i dunno i can kinda understand the argument though. but i don't think anybody's parenting is going to come completely unraveled just because they don't yell at their kids for accepting participation awards and angrily snatch them away
I don't really see much good in participation ribbons but they're pretty harmless. So why fuss over them?