Where's MY trophy???

I showed up for life. Where's MY trophy?!

What happens when everyone's a winner?
Some ask whether feel-good trophies are actually good for children
By Mike Reiss, Globe Staff February 23, 2006

When a youth basketball league in Framingham finishes its season next month, every fifth- and sixth-grader will receive a shiny trophy. Even those on the last-place team.
''We want them to be happy and come back to play the following year," said the Temple Beth Am Brotherhood league's director, Rich Steckloff.

In communities across Boston's western suburbs, at the end of long seasons on the soccer pitch, hoop court, or baseball diamond, kids are getting trophies not for winning championships, but for simply participating.

Some say there's no harm in awarding trophies to all, that it's a reward for playing a sport that keeps them fit. And it's hard to argue with the warm feeling a parent gets when their wide-eyed child receives a prize.

But others have raised questions about whether getting trophies so easily is the best thing for youngsters.

''There is something inherently good about trying to raise kids' feelings about themselves, but there has to be balance," said Leonard Zaichkowsky, a Boston University professor and director of its sport and exercise psychology training program, shared by BU's schools of education and medicine. ''We also have to teach kids to be mentally tough, to take criticism, to experience failure, to learn that somebody wins and somebody loses.

''We have to take teachable moments to reach kids and explain that there are going to be setbacks and losses, and to be able to cope with that," he said.

''I'm not sure where the mentality came from, or how it got to this point, but the stuff given out to kids -- the 'thanks for participating' trophies' -- it seems we're more worried about not hurting feelings," Vulcano said.

''It's a tough call and I don't know what the right answer is. But I certainly know it's not a good idea to keep rewarding people, day after day, when they don't earn it. They lose their workmanship. I don't know if we're doing kids justice in the way we're handling it."

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/02/23/what_happens_when_everyones_a_winner/