Have Participation Trophies hurt or helped our societal culture?

Kind of a redundant or rhetorical question. In real life, do you get the same as everyone else? Does zero effort deserve the same as an all out effort?

When I played football, soccer, and wrestled I really did not care what they said about me. I knew I practiced hard and my goal was to always win.

My problem is young people who are apathetic and don’t have a winning spirit. I will not praise apathy and those who fail to reach specific goals like getting a High School degree. In the military and the corporate world we need results driven people, and results driven people tend to work the hardest. I will be damned if I see a rat turd and call it gold. I have witnessed too many young folks who think mediocrity is acceptable.

"But if you think the participation trophy is a recent symptom of the diapering of America, think again. We didn’t start handing out participation trophies when Baby Boomers became parents. We started handing them out after World War I."

"The participation trophy was a feature of campus life for decades. Military bases handed out participation trophies during and after World War II."

"In 1924, the University of Minnesota debuted a “30-inch sterling participation trophy” for “the campus organization having the highest number of participation points.” The idea was to encourage students to do sports—participation as something to be rewarded, because it’s good to exercise, to compete, to try hard, win or lose. The participation trophy was a feature of campus life for decades."

"Military bases handed out participation trophies during and after World War II. Schools and sports leagues picked up the practice, for individuals and teams. In 1942, each member of the winning team in the Western Division Class B of the Montana state boys’ basketball tournament—Corvallis, which beat Townsend, 50–35—got a miniature gold basketball, while “all other players received participation trophies.” In 1955, the Ithaca, New York, peewee football program may have introduced the emphasis of playing over winning—hastening our cultural decline—when it gave a participation trophy to the team that used “the greatest number of players per game for the season.”"

https://slate.com/culture/2019/04/participation-trophy-history-world-war-i.html#:~:text=The%20participation%20trophy%20was%20a%20feature%20of%20campus%20life%20for%20decades.&text=Military%20bases%20handed%20out%20participation%20trophies%20during%20and%20after%20World%20War%20II.

We are 99 years into the participation trophies. The first recorded instance was in 1922. It's been a thing ever since.

I remember the pain of humiliating defeat as a child. The only thing more humiliating was our mommies making very loud gushy protests about "It really didn't matter," "The important thing is to have fun" and "We did or best." And while our mommies they hugged us, we could see the smug faces of the victors, laughing at us, and planning their snarky comments for the next day on the playground.

What a bunch of HORSE SHIT!!!
_If it didn't really didn't matter, why did I spend two hours a day five days a week practicing?
_"If the important thing is to have fun, why is practice so regimented and "un-fun.?"
_And if our best resulted in calling the game because it was a runaway, what hope is there for me and my team mates. If it was the fun that mattered why call the game? [Because my team would still be on the field to this day trying to get the 1st out. That's right we were 21 points down in the 1st half of the 1st inning. The team that beat us went on to take 2nd place in the little league world series] If we're OK with that and the adults are so OK with that that they give us a medal, either the adults are lying, or the medals aren't worth having.

My Dad never coddled me when I lost. He never humiliated me either. He wanted to know two things:
_Was I embarrassed? and was I going to let that embarrassment put me in a nice comfy snuggly bed where I could while away the hours wishing I was good? Or was I going to turn that embarrassment into the rocket fuel that made get a plan and get GOOD.
_and, How could he help? (I loved my Dad.)

I think if someone had tried to give me a participation medal, Dad would have smacked it from their hands, backed them up to a wall got in their face and told them to "Get the ____ away from my boy!!!" Enshrining mediocrity is child abuse. Don't get me wrong, so is humiliating and bully ragging a kid for losing/failing. You pick them up, dust them off, and get to work at improving. But you don't give them a medal for showing up.

Like a game of football, baseball or basketball, there should be winners and losers. How do you suppose the big dawgs like LeBron James and such would take to be getting a participation trophy. In grade school sports there should be winners and losers. Participation is like the Bump on a log. It participates being a part of the tree. No one notices that bump on the log until you sit on it. Like the war between back in the 60's-70's where they just shot artillery shells at each other for 10 years of participation. Again no winner-no loser. Races are run to be won. You participate in the marathon run but the first one to the finish is the winner. All the rest participated. But I guess the real question is, "why do you participate (in the game/race)?" The answer is obvious, you enter to win. All this physco stuff is what is wrong with some of the troops now. Being a soldier is something you play/work at to be a winner. I am going down too many bunny trails now but you get the idea, if not, at least I participated.

I am not bragging just stating an opinion. I don't think many of the teens today could do what I did. I got good grades. I played football, soccer, and wrestled. I also snuck out at night and partied my ass. The expectations are much lower now. Some of them bitch that the phone and internet are giving them anxiety because it gives them another task to accomplish. I would bet my left nut that the wash out rate at basic is higher now than during my era.

Missing your goal or losing is as much a part of growing as winning. Not everyone is going to be the best, smartest, strongest, whatever. Children need to learn to put their best effort into whatever they do, even if they are not the best or don't enjoy it and to discover what they are good at and like to do and then find out how that parleys into a vocation. If they do, they will succeed as adults.

To use myself as an example, I never made a lot of money. While I enjoyed my work, my passions were family and community, and that is where I chose to put my energy. My wife and I may have to scrimp and scrape our way through retirement, and probably work part time, but we have six kids with good lives, good spouses and 17 grand kids who love us. I am content, and in my eyes successful.

One of the biggest things we need to do for our children and grandchildren is to teach them how to lose gracefully. Equally important is for us to teach them how to win gracefully. Without these two actions or society is in a constant state of war. MHO

Most everyone here complaining about participation trophies likely wears or wore one....