The School Auditorium

This drawing was made around two years ago from one of the seats of my school's auditorium. You might be able to see that instead of the audience sitting in their place and the people on the stage keeping to themselves on the other side, there are people moving all around - some sitting, some ascending the stage, some descending the stage and some on the stage.

This was the prize distribution ceremony of a competition that was hosted by my school and attended by many neighbouring schools. However, instead of a few distinguished participants getting a prize, every single participant did.

There's a saying - "Everybody's a winner". There is no doubt that there is a great deal of positivity, optimism, motivation and inspiration for this phrase. However, more than ever, I feel that giving a prize to everyone defeats the purpose of this seemingly attempt to motivate participants to try better next time and learn from their mistakes.

That day, when we were going back home in the bus, one of my friends who had participated in the competition was increasingly upset and was at the brink of tears.

She had received a silver medal.

This would seem strange, because shouldn't a silver medal mean a lot? I told her this. She replied, "Everyone got a silver medal."

As kids and teenagers, we place a lot of value on something such as a silver medal. When something that means such a great deal is given to you but is stripped of its value and equalised to a participation certificate, it feels awfully terrible. Why? This might be one of the things you really wanted, something you wanted to scratch of your bucket list and let your parents take a picture of you with before sending it proudly to your relatives. But this silver medal has no value.

The competition had a mix of writing and debate competitions. I was absolutely lousy at debates at the time (I like to think I'm better now), and I received a silver medal. However, I had certain skill for writing critical essays and for that competition, I won two gold medals, making it to the number four position. It meant the world to me. I won my first gold, and it had merit and value.

I knew that I had not done well in the debate. I would willingly accept a participation certificate and move on, perhaps I would even try to improve on my own. There was no need to sugarcoat the fact that I had not done as well as I could or as well as the other participants. I admit I sucked at the debate, and I move on. Instead of receiving a participation certificate that I could tuck within a folder, the silver medal hangs a little too proudly for my taste from my wall. And when I see it, there is a bitter taste in my mouth because I know that this silver medal, although creditable in other situations, is not valuable in this case.

In this blog entry, although it may seem, I'm not trying to be pessimistic. I'm trying to offer a different perspective. From the 18th episode of the 28th season of Simpsons, we see a comical representation of when kids receive no praise and no medals versus when everyone receives medals, even if they have not participated. Both extreme cases offer a valuable and deeper perspective behind the superficial humour. One of the reasons it was assumed that everyone received a medal was because the competition was simply a money making scheme and ensuring that everyone's money paid off so that there were no complaints. It's important to note that what really motivates kids are when they receive praise for something they know they did well in. We always talk about how too many medals and trophies can make a child overconfident and lazy, but we never talk about how it can discourage a child as well. Maybe these award-giving tactics need a different approach both in schools around the world and, especially, large competitions like spellings bees and olympiads.