James Harrison Wants His Kids To Earn Trophies

Shaner, out of curiosity, do you think your two schools of thought could be because you weren't necessarily raised in a truly "capitalistic" society. I, in no way, mean this as an insult or anything. I'm just curious if maybe this is more of a "cultural" thing since Canada is considered more of a "nanny state" than we are here in America? Just would like to get your two cents. You know you're my boy.

 

SUPPOSED exposure! LOL!!!

 

Eh, I agree somewhat but I don't have any problem with not keeping score and working on fundamentals at age 4, 5 and 6. Half the kids on the team at that age are either trying to sit in the dirt digging holes or chasing bugs around the outfield for a good part of the game anyway. Not to mention it's coach pitch so it's not like they are facing live pitching. I usually help coach the kids' teams and in tee ball it would be pretty pointless to keep score when you still have a couple kids on the team that when they are on 2nd and you tell them to go home, they attempt to run from 2nd to home by crossing the middle of the infield lol. Or when a ball is hit to left field and all 9 kids run out there to go get it. Just my 2 cents.

 

Yup, totally agree. I think these bogus awards are given out more for the parents (some of which have a tendency to complain) than the kids.

Giving out select trophies for meaningful objectives is a heck of a lot more beneficial for the kids than giving out a trophy for everything. When I was a kid, and only three trophies were given out for a field of say, 60 kids, then those things meant something and I knew I had to work harder to get one. Sometimes the rest of us would get certificates or something a level lower than an actual trophy, for "participating". That was cool, and felt good to get, but we all knew that the trophies were the main prize. We were kids, like 10 years old and younger, and understood this concept and were fine with it.

 

I'm on the same page and can remember going to camps where there would be an offensive MVP, defensive MVP, mr. hustle, and maybe most improved. The rest of us got a t-shirt or a rubber ball with the school or camp logo on it or maybe a tote bag. But the t-shirt was cool because you wore it at parctice or around school and it gave you some credibility with the other kids. I always thought getting the swag was way cooler than some generic participation trophy or medal. At least you could use it and get some mileage out of it with your buddies (and the girls).

 

This is the second time someone (perhaps you both times, can't remember now) has directly asked me a question about Canada being more of a nanny state than the US. To that I'll say, and please don't take offence to this because it's not meant to be insulting, but I think sometimes you Americans aren't overly informed about the rest of the world, especially Canada. Canada is just as much of a capitalist state as the US is. Were more of a nanny state in the sense of healthcare and gun control, that's literally it. In every other way, capitalism is exactly the same. In fact, we often have less regulations than the US does and we tend to leave it up to industry to self-regulate (which has bit us in the ass many times over the years).

So no, my opinions have nothing to do with the fact that I didn't grow up in a capitalistic country, because I did grow up in capitalism.

 

OR DID YOU




But seriously... you're right. I would never consider Canada a non-capitalist society. And I doubt that would affect your views on rewarding kids too much.

 

Yep. Capitalism is alive and well here and has been my whole life. There's a handful of very rich people, and everyone else is fighting for scraps. Exactly like the US.

 

Where are you from? The love of my life was raised in Moncton...and if she is indicative of Canadian women, then my gawd do American women have a lot to learn from Canada! LOL

 

This is very true. I don't know how or if sports relates to everything (or vice-versa) but we do seem to live in an entitlement society. And by that, I don't mean that people are raised to expect society to take care of them--that's a separate argument. It means we have a generation or two of people who have been taught that if they scream loud enough, they'll get their way. Don't like the meal you ordered? Scream at the manager and get it comped. Don't like the B you got in algebra class? Whine all the way up the chain of command and have it changed to an A. Angry that the ER doc who, despite saving your life, left a scar on your cheek? Scream at the medical board and sue for malpractice. Don't like that the NFL commissioner (with full power your NFLPA ave him) found you guilty of knowing that footballs were being deflated? Take it all the way to court, kicking and screaming.

There is a thin line between advocating for yourself and using the system to "get things" that you don't deserve.

 

I'm from Ontario, a long ways away from New Brunswick. New Brunswick is a beautiful part of the country and the people there are extremely friendly and welcoming

 

Wow this is a great thread – some really articulate responses here.

I lean more towards agreeing with James though I like what people said about giving awards for specific things like “Most Improved” vs. participation. I will note personally that as the father of a 10 year old daughter who is on the autism scale (PDD), my daughter has social interaction issues which definitely affect her ability to process and communicate with others – this affects her self esteem. So any real opportunity for her to participate meaningfully means a lot to her. I recently ran a 5k with her and she ran the whole race stopping only twice for like 20 seconds to get a drinks of water – but other than that she ran the whole race, no walking. She didn’t win the race or even come close, but that participation/completion medal meant something and that is proudly displayed in her room, because we do want to emphasize that she really finished something and she is capable of accomplishing things and that she should feel good about herself. I want that medal to represent that to her.

Also – I want to defend Shaner82 as well…being from Canada doesn’t mean that everybody gets affected by nanny state … i.e. let’s all stay in the middle of the pack. Last I checked Canada still produces the best hockey players in the world. Also take the country of Spain as well – another supposed nanny state – yet they seem to produce one of the best soccer teams, their basketball team is fairly competitive, and they have like 25% of the world’s top 50 tennis players. Also the United States is a capitalistic, competitive society and we do a lot of things great, but believe it or not the US is not the best at everything. In fact if you take productivity rates (GDP/hours worked) the US lags behind nanny state countries like Norway and Germany and God forbid even France is competitive with the US.

Also – Shaner with your earlier statements should we take it that in “Meet the Fokkers” that James Harrison would be playing the role of Robert DeNiro and you would be “Dustin Hoffman” or… “Babs Streisand?”

 

I have no problem with what Harrison has said or is doing. They are his kids, He is a world class athlete who has experienced failure and success on every level.

I used to coach my sons baseball team. There were two trophies given out. The regular season champs and the tournament champs. This was 10 yrs ago and even then during the trophy presentations many of the moms were complaining every kid deserved a trophy. They got even more angry when we explained only winners received trophies..........

Cajun-

 

I've always heard that Canadians are just more friendly then your average American is. Now this was the late ninety's so i dont know if this still holds true or not but my friend told me hitchhiking was still an accepted form of travel and it just kinda blew my mind. The farthest into Canada I have been is to Toronto when my cousin got married but I was like 8 so I have no real opinion on the matter as all I can go of off is that trip and my cousin's husband. He's a good dude but to me I don't see any real difference in his attitude and ours.

 

Have tried to collect my thoughts on this to see where I stand.
I know my initial reaction is good. Kids need to be taught that just because you show up doesn't mean you will succeed/win whatever you want to call it.
Nobody actually knows how James Harrison actually told his kids that those trophies were going to be returned. But there is definitely a right way to do it, if that is what you want to do as a parent.

I know as a younger board member (29) I was on the cusp of the whole start of participation medals/trophies/ribbons. Like a lot of people I played little league baseball. In the league I was in I was lucky enough to be on a few teams that won the league. One of my final years I was on a team that was the worst. My coach called me after the season and told me I could come over and pick up my trophy whenever I wanted it. I didn't understand why I got a trophy. Prior years taught me if my team won we would get recognition for it. When my parents explained why I got the trophy I told them I didn't want it. I still wanted to play baseball but I wanted to earn recognition.

Some other food for thought. My neighbor's have a daughter (11-12 years old) that does karate. Supposedly for her age group she is one of the best black belts in the nation. She had a competition last year that she was expected to improve whatever degree black belt she was to the next level. She didn't but when she tells the story she talks about what she did wrong and how she will fix it to improve. Everyone that hears her say that is shocked but impressed.

 

Fair enough. I was just curious is all. We've been on here for years so sometimes it's hard to remember what has been said and not said. I just thought of that as I was looking over the thread and seeing the sort of "philosophical" differences and it just made me sorta wonder about that. I would be curious to the way our British, Italian, and Mexican members feel about things like this as well. I think it's cool that we have so many people from different cultures that contribute things on here. Also, just for contexts sake, the media here sorta uses stories like these to form a "narrative" about the rift between people in this country with more socialistic or capitalistic leanings and it just made me want to ask a "regular guy" about it as opposed to what some talking head "elite" had to say about it.

 

Dude I will tell you what the worst thing is about tee ball. It's the stupid redneck parents that take it WAY more seriously than they should! I almost witnessed a fist fight! IN. A. TEE. BALL. GAME! Because of a bad call.

 

You got that right for sure. The ones who have the future major league all stars who are better and more important than all the other kids. Always at least one on every team. Talk about sucking all the fun out of a sport. Blah.

 

Yep. Then there's the opposite extreme which is the parent who gets mad that their kid doesn't get to play as much when they are clearly the worst one on the team. That exists in youth basketball a lot. My mother in law got my little boy a soccer ball and he has said that he wants to play soccer and around here soccer leagues are just a reason for every kid to get a trophy and it's just not very competitive but if it's what he really wants to do I'm gonna let him. I just hope he grows out of it though because I HATE soccer! LOL! I'm a like MURICAN sports!

 

Love the discourse on this!

I think everyone can see where society is going wrong, but for some reason we seem to be caught in this loop of not being able to stop the madness!

I'm wondering how this happens? Damn near everyone I've talked to hates the thought of plain participation trophies. Maybe a ribbon saying they played, but to have a trophy presentation to most is too much.

 

I should rephrase that most of the ones I was referring to THINK their kids are future major leaugers at age 8 and are too talented for the league they are in. Those are usually the chronic complainers. Usually the same parents who average 5 facebook posts a day shamelessly bragging about how awesome the kid is at everything they do and updating people on every single aspect of the kid's life because the world might stop if people didn't know about everything the kid has accomplished in the last 24 hours.

Lol, I feel your pain. I am so glad my kids never got into Soccer.

 

This once great Country made a very sharp left turn. This is just a very small result of that decision. A full list would crash this forum.