Classic Stossel: Everyone Gets a Trophy 

"When I was a kid trophies had meaning!" 🏆 John Stossel... 💯 👏

I love the comment: "If you don't teach your kids about the real world, reality is going to do it for you." The only thing missing from this true statement is that reality is not nice...

"When everyone is super... No one will be"

Probably 20 years ago, I was seeing the “trophy” kids in my college classroom. One day, when they were exclaiming about the difficulty of the class-which I had already dumbed down from prior years to reach their level-one girl said I was harming her self image. I asked her how people develop a positive self image. She replied that it came from people telling her she was good. I replied in turn that true self image comes from within, from tackling and overcoming obstacles and difficulties. She was flabbergasted to think that she needed to exert any initiative. She was still waiting for a figurative participation trophy at age 19, not to mention less homework and a giveaway A grade. Those were the days when the fun of teaching began to die.

As a parent it’s natural to want to protect our children. There’s nothing wrong with that either. However, if we shelter them and give them a false sense of security by never allowing them to fail or figure some things out for themselves then we’re setting them up for failure and disappointment later in life. If a child never experiences failure, disappointment or pain from being hurt physically and mentally then when it happens as they’re older they won’t know how to deal with it and can face bigger problems. A lot of people have anxiety or other problems as adults because they didn’t learn how to handle certain situations when they were younger. Sometimes you have to touch the fire to understand that it can burn you. Most humans learn from their mistakes and don’t repeat them. If we overly shelter our children and don’t let them figure it out and learn to problem solve on their own then we’re just hurting them more in the long run. Parents should guide their children, not control their every thought and moment.

I remember in grade school, we had a relay race on fun day. Our group had mostly slow kids that nobody wanted on their team and was expected to finish dead last without placing. Come race time, I was the last runner and ran my heart out, passed a faster kid than myself and we ended up placing 3rd for a 3rd place ribbon (the very last before just getting a participant ribbon only). The fact that our group of "misfits" placed 3rd and beat out a supposed better group of faster kids is something I'll always remember. It felt great proving the doubters wrong, I even surprised myself that day. With that said, had we not placed, the participation ribbon we would have received would have meant absolutely nothing.

I climbed the tree in my front yard when I was 11. I fell. I broke my left arm. I had a cast for several weeks. I'm more careful these days when climbing a tree (in my 40's, usually to find fruit). I moved on. I'm alive. I got first or second place in the 200 yard dash sometime in elementary school. They gave me a blue ribbon. It meant something special and encouraged me to try to always do my best. If I had gotten a ribbon for simply running, it wouldn't have meant any more to me than the piece of paper that listed my name as a runner.

I fully agree. Competition is good. Learning you are not the best is good. It pushes most to try harder. Live is hard and you must be prepared for challenges, wins and loses.

Tasting failures and making mistakes is a good thing. If you really want something, you’ll need to work for it and not get scared of mistakes. I’ve personally tasted failure in college, but I didn’t give up or pout because things didn’t go my way and now I have an awesome job at an awesome company.

While my daughters were growing up, I wrestled with them all the time and they loved it, constantly asking to do so. They still speak fondly of it, three of them against me and they often came out victorious.

My sons played travel sports. There were winners and losers teams were eliminated from playoffs and won championships. They learned and gained so much from this experience. My eldest is 24, he bought his first house 2 yrs ago. My 17 year old is a senior on honor roll and received a sports scholarship.

Why not give every military person the Congressional Medal of Honor? Why not give every kid that shows up to school a graduation diploma? Well, maybe they do now with diplomas.

The point of loosing is when guided the proper way, pushing the kids to try again, it teaches one of the most important tools in life: determination, how to always do better, to never give and take the easy way out. This is what keeps a person aways from comformity, from living on the streets and "thinking this is fine, I'll sink deeper".

Reminds me of the years I was involved with Classic Cars. All entries received a "Participation" award :)

My daughter played soccer from the age of 4 through high school. When she was 12 she played in her 1st competitive soccer league. On this league she had to earn her way on to a team, had to be at practice everyday, weekends consisted of 2 or 3 games. The Championship Weekend consisted of any team who's rank 3rd or lower had to play at least 3 games. Her team played 3 games , back to back to back, and won the championship. On the way home she looked at me and said "dad this is the 1st trophy I've ever received that I truly believed I earned." My daughter is in college now. Because of that season she understood what hard work and success means.

Failures are the stepping stones to success.

Shout out to the G-dawg. Awesome collab for all the baby monsters from before they existed

In High School in the 70s I ran Cross Country, Indoor Track, Outdoor Track and Summer meets. My events in Track were the Half mile, the Mile and anchoring the Mile relay. If I ran the Half I didn't run the Mile. I was the best in my school for all those events and set School records. I figure I ran in 180 races over 4 years....of those 180 races I think I can remember winning maybe 12. Thank God running taught me how to lose gracefully...there is always someone better.

I've been in a number of academic and sports competitions and every time I DIDN'T win my parents always said they were proud of me for trying my best. So when I lost at something they showed support which encouraged me to try again and not winning a trophy encouraged me to try harder. If I won a trophy for nothing what incentive is there to trying. Maybe just give "participation t-shirts" to kids instead?

I’m going to go out on a limb and say this women is single. I pray for her children.

Is called competitiveness it makes YOU TRY HARDER and BETTER YOURSELF, this woman is NUTS

Stossel dropping absolute bangers as always, keeping it 55th.

I wish my mom was around to see this article. She passed almost 2 years ago at 87. She had three boys two of which proceeded her in death in 2006 and 2007. Even after both my brothers died. My mom never waivered from her teaching to me at 54 when she died. Be strong Jeff, don't live in fear, take chances. You may never be the best in the room, but know you are worth while and can make a difference in this world. She NEVER ever let us think we had won for no reason. She was the type to help pick us up out of the dirt when we fell, but she never said. Now take it easy Jeff, don't push yourself. Absolutely NOT, she would dust us off and say, now go back and try harder. It may take you a lifetime to succeed. But in the end you will! That to me would be the best mother in the world. She would tell that crazy lady in this article that she is harming all her children, and any others who listen to her. She was a proud Christian, but she knew when to take a stand against evil. Well this would be evil in her book. Harming children.

“There’s nothing better than learning to lose” sometimes losing and learning is the best trophy there is.

Number one in confidence, number last in competence.

This made me think of kids who don't play any sports, so perhaps some small way to celebrate that kids do show up is a good thing. We should celebrate that. We should also celebrate much more for those who excel.

the old single mom blogger is unintentionally hilarious: "you can give them a ribbon!" HA

There is no shame in losing. There is only shame in not TRYING.

Competition is what builds nations. It drives us to do better.

The only exception, even as as an adult might be a "Completion Award" for something really challenging. such as a marathon or an iron man competition, wherein even finishing within limits is an accomplishment.

Classic John Stossel! I've been listening to this guy all these years. I'm so happy HE IS FINALLY starting to get some of the recognition he deserves.

Was she messing with me lmao

If Edison was given a trophy each time he failed to create a lightbulb, we wouldn't have a lightbulb.

When every child wins 🏆 a prize, the ultimate effect is the cotton wool kids phenomenon ...

(HAHAHA, they demanded the evil-tree be canceled, LOL!)

I dont even let my kids win at board games, yes there has been a lot of tears but when they do actually beat me at something theyre super proud of themselves.

Mom is out of her mind. 🤣🤣

It reminds me of "United against HATE" messages I see. They say nothing of racism, just hate in general. Everyone gets a trophy, and no one is allowed to hate anything. Life is a warm fuzzy love bubble.🤗

Gavin is a rockstar.

Kids today are obsessed with winning, but there are better lessons in losing. My Dad never let me win at chess, but it never bothered me, I respected him more because of it. Humility isn't such a bad thing.

"giving every child a trophy diminishes the value of it"

From an episode of Two and a Half men... Jake: In school, everybody gets a trophy just for participating Charlie: Well Jake, that's the difference between school and life. In life, all you get for participating is pain, loneliness and death.

When my first year football team won no games, the coach got us trophies that said" We Tried ". This was 1971. It was meant to be funny. It was.🗿

I try out at least 2-3 WWE moves on my kids every day. My two-year old son likes the Undertaker’s Tombstone. My six-year old daughter likes the Rock Bottom. 😂

I'm 40 and when I was a kid they started to not want to keep score and everyone got a trophy. We all kept score and if my team didn't win I threw my trophy in the garbage.

With no dark there is no light

I have 3 kids and if I bought a trophy every time they read a book I would spend more money on trophies than on food! My son is 10 and reading Tolkein.

Learning to lose is something I was blessed to learn at a young age. But everyone in my generation got participation trophies growing up. Now that generation votes, and the losers decide to riot. Maybe giving the losing party a participation trophy would fix that.

The only thing that can truly compel someone to be at the top of a hierarchy is becoming competent in that set of skills. Color creed or sexuality none of that stuff matters what matters is your competence

It's having its ramifications now. These kids grow up to be helpless victims. It sucks. Failing is part of life and we learn from it. If you don't, it's all on you.

Bruh, we "fought" our two daughters as babies much rougher than that and now they're completely -ERRRR... never mind.

In order for there to be an up there must be a down. For a winner there must be a loser.

Imagine going 12 rounds of boxing, suffering serious blows and regardless of the matter both sides win.

When everyone's a winner, no one is.

My boys would throw participation medals out . One even threw his silver out because they choked from winning gold and they knew it at age 11. They DID blow it 🤷🏽‍♀️ Editing to add they are both normal productive successful 20 somethings that are not in therapy

I have never seen a sports trophy that says "Last Place" on it.

This is the reason why our country is in the trouble that we are in today. All these kids were taught to deny their instincts. When instincts are suppressed, one forgets they are free and allows, no, desires to be subjugated for their safety.

This one hits home for me in two ways one as a kid when after four weeks of summer camp I got one of those and before my dad and I left I asked him to throw it away it meant nothing to me I felt bad the best ones went to the popular kids mine was one that you could tell that they randomly thought of categories just to give you something. The other way it hit home was just like Billy Crystals character I was annoyed that at my nephew's soccer game they didn't keep score and as someone who works at a school it was odd that I couldn't get a yes or no answer when I asked if the kids were going to win the game and didn't have any enthusiasm to try to win to get to state championship game and now they don't say second place they say runner-up

That chad with an uncle grandpa cast...

My son is now 23 when he played little league baseball his team lost and they gave him a trophy he said we list I don’t want the trophy. You don’t get rewarded for losing

I remember long ago in my school they went the opposite route: Instead of giving everyone awards, they took away awards completely: Instead of celebrating excellence, they just stopped celebrating anything.

If you never fail, how do you learn from you mistakes? It may not matter as a child but as an adult if you do not learn from you mistakes, your failure could hurt a lot of people.

You can never grow to your full potential unless you learn what your limits are. Mentally and physically. Find your limits. Only a nut job doesn't let their kid lose some skin, or a game. Which ties in beautifully with why fathers are SO important in the home. They allow, and even push their kids to take those risks.

“Just because something can lead something serious doesn’t mean we have to avoid it!” Um…yes it does…

-- "you are the 3rd uber that doesn't have a child seat for us" - airport pickup . The first generation is already out there. Unsupervised.

We are seeing how this works out. They all think that they deserve stuff they didn't earn

What happens when the kid joins the work force and collides with the real world. I worked in IT sales and sales management and am now retired. The Sales Reps who fails o meet the sales target two quarters in a row doesn't get a trophy, they get fired. Self esteem is something you achieve through your success. If you choose work your not smart enough for or you not conscientious enough and you fail how do you deserve to have self esteem?

0:18 There's nothing "kind" about telling someone they don't have to try and they'll still win a trophy because nature doesn't work that way. It's also a slippery slope. No matter how safe and coddling you are, you can do more. Jenn-Anne doesn't understand that sometimes kindness is pity and pity is for the weak. That's why schools have lots of different activities so they can experiment and find what they like.

Seth Godin says you fail up. Just never fail to big

They’re so worried about them getting their feelings hurt as children, they’re failing at teaching them how to be successful adults.

That woman didnt learn a thing from Finding Nemo or Rapunzel

And asian kid: look i got no.2 in my class Asian parents: no.2 is the first loser

You can't learn how to win unless you learn how to fail

Childhood is about building the foundations for being an independent adult. This is basically socialism/communism in a nut shell.

I have a friend who owns a business. He hires people of this generation and within a week they want a raise in pay. Why? Because The employee thought they were making work harder than they thought they would, the employee thought he was being paid to "show up" . It's true I didn't make it up.

Get rid of the slides, get rid of the trees. Why not just put your kid in a comfy room with their arms locked so they won't poke their eye out? That'll get them to be truly truly safe.

Why not give every kid a passing grade aswell? The kid failing needs it the most, right?

Keep it simple. Not everyone deserves a trophy for not coming in 1st, 2nd, or 3rd in a competition, not everyone is good-looking, not everyone is smart, and so on and so forth to infinity. That's life.

"A winner is just a ex loser that got angry" I raced motocross when I was younger. I was never a fan of the 4-8 year old kids in the 50cc class all getting trophies. It was evident when they moved up to the next engine size, 65cc, class and had to earn their trophy. So many kids crying and throwing tantrums. I resolved then that if my kid(s) raced that even in the 50cc class they would earn the trophy. It's not teaching them self esteem. It's teaching them that they don't have to work at anything and they will still be rewarded. The real world doesn't work like this. Stop teaching our kids that it does. Teach them to research and think, no regurgitate what we tell them to "think"

Coloring between the lines isn’t about the picture being pretty, it’s about learning fine motor control. We teach it so they can be good at other more intricate skills later on and kids will want that. If u can’t color between the lines u also can’t play video games well.

7:27 she just contradicted herself "How about you acknowledge what they DID do well" Guess what, it wasn't EVERYTHING.

It’s even worse than this. Because it leads to college age adults needing “safe spaces” and “mental consoling” after even HEARING a different point of view.

I laughed the hardest when the blonde lady said there’s nothing funny about fighting a baby,

My son was in a sport tournament. His team took second in a loser bracket. They actually gave them a trophy. My son threw the trophy in the garbage in front of the entire team. I was so proud of him.

John's face when she said, "you can give him a ribbon" is the face of a man who's at a loss trying to find logic when there is none and just giving up at trying.

"Old Single Mom, Blogger"...... Yeah, I'm not surprised she's single.

Things in life are earned, not given. That’s the biggest lesson I have ever learned. “The master has failed more times than the beginner has even tried.” - Stephen McCranie

Defeat is what drives some of the most successful people in the world. Letting kids feel a little defeat doesn't scar them for life. It teaches them to overcome or allows them to see what they're not good at and switch to something that they're really good at. Not everyone can be an Albert Einstein or Tom Brady.

I love when people like her say “Jesus this or Jesus that” …you aren’t a real Christian, read your Bible! Bible talks about hard work and labor, and long suffering, not everyone is a winner.

Everything that is screwed up in this country started in California.

The mom is such a weak person, she is setting up her child for failure.

Giving everyone trophies make them worthless? Imagine if we just printed more money and kept spending lol 🤣

Kids need to learn that there are winners and losers in the world. The trick in life is finding what you are good at and can win at. I would love to play in the NBA but I'm 5'6" and that will not happen even if I get a participation trophy in school.

As a young lad, I excelled in everything that I did. It wasn't until high school when I joined the diving team where I experienced my first deficiency. There were others that were better than myself. I learned that through hard work and practice, that I could, and did, become better in diving. There was still one individual better than me, and I acknowledged his skills and aptitude in the sport. I thank him from time to time in my mind for showing me that I can better myself always; sometimes I succeed; sometimes I fail, yet with learning. The first lady is a psychological danger to her children.

"The one who deserves it the least, needs it the most" Yeah, I can see why she's a single mom. Good luck telling people that if your kid ever happens to be homeless

In regards to not keeping score in sports, my dad would say, "If you don't want them to keep score, don't teach them to count!"

when I was a kid, only those who got 1st, 2nd. 3th got a real gold, silver, and bronze medal. Then they changed that, because of parents like that woman. Failure is the best teacher.

American Idol is literally a perfect example of this and shows what people really think about a participation trophy. Everyone wants, craves the praise of Simon because he was so hard on everyone. Everyone knew that Paula was nicer and would try to not hurt people's feelings. They worked extra hard to please Simon. People want to feel useful and if you are just going to lie it will make them feel worse. People innately know when someone is lying to them, unless they are just desperate for compliments and will gulp up anything. I HATE IT when ppl give me a compliment that isn't earned.

We're not talking about kindness here, we're talking about children being taught that patronizing everyone makes you a good person rather than a liar. Imagine being a politician, watching entire generations learn to see you as benevolent when you lie to them.

As a kid I never understood why we got trophies every year when we played soccer especially when most times we sucked. The one time my team won almost every single game I wanted an actual Trophy and those participation trophies pissed me off as a 10 year old kid.