Should Everybody Win a Prize?

I do not think it is possible to ignore excellence or forcibly equate it with mediocrity. There will always be a guaranteed reward in the form recognition/acknowledgement in observer's mind for the excellence/extraordinary effort irrespective winning/losing/not getting recognition etc.,. We see this in adult's competitions, that sometimes loser gets equal applaud for the extraordinary fight he/she put before eventual winner takes away the trophy.However, in case of children at early age (toddlers/ pre-schoolers), the reward for everyone is not meant to de-recognise/ignore excellence, but rather to encourage children to participate in activities,which is most important than winning (at least at that age).Let the winner get the trophy, but let every participant has a consolation prize. I do not see anything wrong with it. I think we practise this in adults competitions too, eg., first round losers in all Grand Slams get few thousand dollars for entering the main draw.

The problem is that you get 30+ students to a class it is hard to give attention to those that need it most (whether that is reward for excellence or help getting out of the ditch).

Another issue is that growing a child and a child's mind goes beyond the classroom. The days of the nuclear family are pretty much dissolved to history. Now a large number of families are dysfunctional. Either they are single mothers/fathers, or families living in relationship distress. This problem has been handed down for a number of generations, so adults are only perpetuating how they grew up in a world where social engineering rewards this behavior.

There is a third problem, but for some mystical reason it was filtered out when I posted this the first time. I am guessing that the mere mention of xxxxxxx's union gets deleted. A very powerful entity, indeed. ;-)

İ really detest the 'work to the lowest common denominator' concept. Prizes should be for winning. A standard gift can be given to all to show participation. Years back a reporter asked a race car driver if he was happy to have come in 2nd. The driver said, '2nd place is only the 1st of the losers'! Building winners is important!

Reinforcement of mediocrity is far worse than missing a spot on the podium. The only reel negative in children with identifying excellence usually comes from the parents of losers to the competition who themselves (the parent) destroy the child with un-supportive pressure for the child to achieve. ie Demanding results without constructive input to overcome challenges, or over compensation when there is simply not the ability in the child to compete with the winner.

Then the kid should compete in something else. The parent and others should supply the constructive input. The world has too many losers already to reinforce the concept. This is like thinking a tie in a game is a good result - you only have two losers in that case.

Exactly

Positive reinforcement works quite well in training dogs (and other animals). I think our children should be treated a bit differently.

Why and in what regard?

Positive re-enforcement doesn't mean that the ones who did bad get a treat. When you train a dog, you re-inforce good attitude and actions but you don't reward craping on the floor!

Same thing should apply in the classroom. Students who did their homework well get a treat, the others don't. If everybody gets a reward anyway, why trying?

The "also rans" will get over it by the next day. This is a lesson in reality. Not every one who enters is a winner. Besides I believe it will make the "also rans" strive to do better the next time.

oilcan13

My thinking is that such philosophies do the child a disservice as they grow up thinking that just showing up is good enough, then they get out into the workplace and it is a whole different world. Competition is nessecarry.

Sadly it seems that these days there are no losers. Everybody wins. We are so afraid of hurting little Billy's feelings that he gets a prize for just showing up.

And there are rewards for everything these days. If you have a birthday party for your child you have to entice other children to come by giving them "Goody Bags". If your goody bags are not full of the best stuff your child is ridiculed and these ingrates (the parents) will boycott his/her next party. So the birthday boy/girl is no longer the center of the party,all of the children have to be equal.

This will follow these children into adulthood. They will not know how to compete. It's already seen where a nut goes into work and shoots a boss because a coworker got an attaboy and he was left out.

Why even set goals and try harder if you already know that there is a reward for doing little or nothing?

I recently watched an episode of Spongebob Squarepants (I was with my son,stop picking on me) where a character,Patrick Star, is jealous because Spongebob has a closet full of trophy's and Patrick has none. Well in the end Patrick is given an award for being the best at doing absolutely nothing. This is what our children are learning.