Alfie Kohn: Why giving every kid a trophy is better than giving a few an award
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We are entering the awards season when districts hold school-wide assemblies to applaud the achievements of a handful of top-performing students.
It’s also the time when children’s soccer teams gather at pizza parlors, and everyone goes home with a certificate for most improved, most cooperative or most photogenic. (I am joking on the last category although I once witnessed an award for most colorful soccer socks.)
Which of those ceremonies is more detrimental — the one where only a few win, or the one where everybody wins?
Parenting and education writer Alfie Kohn knows that most Americans resent the “everyone gets a trophy” approach. As an influential contrarian and author of “Punished by Rewards,” Kohn objects to award ceremonies and class rankings that single out a few students as winners and the rest as losers because they reinforce competition in schools.
In his new book, “The Myth of the Spoiled Child,” Kohn cites the research showing cooperation is the better educational environment for excellence than competition. Yet, parents and pundits — on both ends of the political spectrum — decry presenting awards for “just showing up” and rail against giving every 9-year-old a $2 plastic trophy at the baseball banquet.
“Everyone loses in the race to win,” said Kohn in a telephone interview. “The message that awards teach is that everyone else is a potential obstacle to your success. What is wrong with academic awards is they create a culture of rivalry and mistrust that undermines excellence for everyone involved. Schools that really want to promote high-quality learning for as many students as possible might bring students in on creating some sort of community celebration that is about us and the progress we’ve made and learning we’ve done, as opposed to this ritual where some kids are set up as having defeated other kids.”
In his book, Kohn criticizes the media echo chamber that gleefully reports tales of helicopter parents, narcissistic and lazy millennials, and the need for grit without critical inspection of the Alfie Kohn: Why giving every kid a trophy is better than... | Get Schooled | www.ajc.com:
