“Losing is good for You” is an article written by Ashley Merryman and Po Bronson. Parents of AS children are concerned about whether children get trophies in a program. Trophies, once precious awards, are now sold to teachers and coaches cheaply and are easy to obtain.

Participation trophies are given a lot to kids, leaving them the impressions of being winners. The sales of trophies becomes a huge industry in the U.S. and Canada. Ashley Merryman and Po Bronson the authors of the article have studied the impacts of praise and awards on kids for years. They argued that too much recognition to kids is a sort of inspiration but it also may lead to underachievement of kids.

The study made by Carol Dweck is also cited to prove the negative influence of too much awards. It is found by Carol Dweck that Children who are used to praise will find it hard to cope with difficulty. Experiments made by Bradley Morris and Shannon Zentall shows that children who received more praise in paintings tend to focus on mistakes. Children who grow up and age 4 or 5 know their value better and may give up trophies. When kids do well in a task, they will be attracted by an exciting competition. Children have no impetus if they already know they can have a trophy.

It can inspire children if a coach names the specific number and title of awards. The authors assumed that people will consider the development level of students if they are to punish the kids. By comparing the awards to children and punishment of children, it is wrong to treat students similarly and give all students the same rewards. Parents of some students get angry when they are informed that the participation trophies are canceled with a tight budget. The fact of increase of narcissism and entitlement in college is also discussed and noticed by the authors. Too many trophies in colleges implies that attendance instead of performance matters. In life, people should get used to the fact that people lose more times than they win, as spoken by Ms Twenge to the author.

It ends with a call for the readers in terms of how to deal with mistakes made by the children. It is hoped that it is more important to help kids who make mistake to overcome obstacles and make progress than giving them decorated awards. It is necessary to protect the rights of kids to lose in the new school year.