Persuasive Speech Case

Persuasive Speech

Good Morning, Mr. Talbot, Fr. Flynn, Parent’s, and Commissioner’s of local sports leagues,

Thank you for meeting with me this morning. I am here to talk to you about the problem plaguing our sports leagues around the nation. Sports are about having fun up to a point, and kids deserve to receive a trophy for coming out and trying their best, but eventually when your kids are 14 years old and still getting a trophy for just showing up it should not be happening. When it comes to competitive sports, trophies are meant for the winners and that’s it. I know because of all the ribbons, trophies, and certificates I’ve accumulated over the years. All these awards that say “runner up” and “participant” on them are supposed to make you feel good about yourself right? If anything, for me at least, I feel lesser about myself because they don’t say “champion” on them, but that’s just me. Sadly though many kids nowadays are quite contempt with these false awards. This can also apply to you with your children. Wouldn’t you rather have your child work for a championship and develop a good work ethic for when he or she gets into the real world, or would you rather have everything handed to your kids so they become lazy and don’t work hard because what's the point they're going to get a trophy anyway. This problem isn’t only with “trophies” it’s also with the overabundance of recognition and praise kids get which causes them to feel a false sense of entitlement and think they are better at something than they really are. Also with some kids they take the recognition and praise so seriously that they are willing to cheat rather than fail just because they want the approval from their superiors. Throughout my speech I will tell you what these problems are causing our kids to do, the roots of these problems, and how this major issue can be solved with your help. Though some feel that everyone should get a trophy, the majority do not.

In a survey taken recently by Reason Rupe found that 57% of the people asked said that only winners should get trophies (Zadrozny). When a child receives their first trophy it’s a big deal. They find accomplishment in that they did something right, but when they receive an award every time they play a sport they develop a work ethic where working hard is not worth anything because I’m going to get an award anyway. This idea is causing kids to underachieve rather than work harder. Also there are other kids who receive non stop recognition and praise from their superiors, and feel that they are doing fine and do not accel. Others resort to cheating rather than failing just so they can receive accolades. These issues are caused by two main things.

There are many causes of these problems one of them being that parents, teachers, and coaches give kids an over abundance of recognition and praise. They tell the kids that they’re doing great even when they’re not. This is a problem because it will cause children to become complacent and, “Praising talent and ability makes kids afraid of difficulty and it makes them wilt when they have setbacks,” says Stanford Psychology professor Carol Dweck . She’s also talked about how people who have given their children to much praise noticed that by age 3 their child does not want to do anything that is hard, and they give up easily. This also affects children later in life too, causing them not to take on challenging tasks (Fernandes). The second is when children know they are going to get an award before they even start the season. In a New York Times article about how losing is good for you, Ashley Merryman begs the question “If children know they will automatically