Trophy Generation

The Trophy Generation
In society today children are raised in an “everybody wins” culture, in an attempt to avoid the emotional pain of failure for those who aren’t as gifted as their peers. The educational system is suffering from this coddling of children, students expect A’s instead of earning them. Also since those children were never exposed to failure and criticism society has become hyper sensitive to everything that isn’t politically correct. The entitlement they feel is apparent in the number of ridiculous lawsuits that are filed everyday because their feelings were hurt. The United States is producing a “Trophy Generation”: Overconfident under achievers who will not measure up to the work ethic of past generations as well as breeding a society full of mediocrity with a false sense of entitlement and something needs to be done about this.
The United States has been producing the Trophy Generation for the past twenty years and the way children were coddled and raised in the “everybody wins” atmosphere is about to affect the work place in ways never thought possible. The effects stem from the individuals childhood parents, teachers, and coaches are at fault, the children were praised and given trophies when they excelled and even when they failed, in an attempt to prevent damaging their self-esteem. Because of this most of the Trophy Generation who are about to enter the workplace feel a sense of entitlement never before seen. The Wall Street Journal quoted Natalie Griffith, manager of human-resource programs at Eaton Corp "Their attitude is always 'What are you going to give me,' "It's not necessarily arrogance; it's simply their mindset." The Trophy Generation expects a large of amount attention from employers on how their doing, also they want everything to be spelled out clearly and have a highly structured work environment. They want the best benefits and flexible work hours for family and personal time, high salaries, and quick promotions and if their demands aren’t met they move on to another company. The only problem with this situation is that they are for the most part unwilling to make trade-offs. Our society needs to stop promoting the everybody wins attitude, if it continues what will happen when the baby-boomer generation retires and we are left with jobs that the Trophy Generation doesn’t feel is worthy of their talent or skills. There needs to be separation in the workplace to create a stronger economy and society not everyone can be a CEO of a company.
Another area of the United States that is beginning to feel the effects of the Trophy Generation is the educational system. An example of this is the “no child left behind act”. Schools curriculum has been changed so that the standardized test that students must take is the material that is taught in an effort to increase test scores, but the deeper understanding and concepts of the material is lost. Also in an effort to bring everyone to the same level state minimums are required, which in some cases leads to the canceling of programs that don’t help achieve those goals such as ones that gifted, talented, and high-performing students are in. Some schools are more attentive to the needs of the students who don’t care about school and don’t put in the effort than the gifted students who are the future of this country. Furthermore some students feel entitled to an A regardless of the amount of work they put into it. Back in high school I can remember multiple occasions when a student was dissatisfied with the grade that they had received usually because it was a failing grade and they didn’t understand why. They would argue with the teacher saying that the teacher didn’t inform them that they were not doing well in the class, or that the teacher wouldn’t help them, even though in both cases the students never took the initiative in the situation. This is mostly a result of the fact that their parents guided them through every situation so they feel that that’s how it will be for the rest of their life someone will be there to hold their hand. The results of this are extremely evident when test scores from U.S. students are compared to that of world. “The scores from the 2006 PISA test showed that U.S. 15-year-olds trailed their peers from many industrialized countries. The average science score of U.S. students lagged behind those in 16 of 30 countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a Paris-based group that represents the world's richest countries. The U.S. students were further behind in math, trailing counterparts in 23 countries.” There needs to be a crackdown on the educational system more emphasis needs to be placed on the gifted programs, teachers need to stop compromising with students about the grades they have received.
Individuals born since 1980 have been raised with the ideals that there is no such thing as losing and that the world will be handed to them regardless of the amount of work they put into it. Granted the Trophy Generation seems to be more driven than previous generations, and has set lofty goals for themselves. It’s the way they handle failure that is a problem, they don’t believe they are ever wrong. American Idol is a leading example of this, countless numbers of horrible singers audition every year regardless of how bad they are. They believe in themselves so much that they are blind to the truth, that they have no skill in singing and when the judges tell them that they didn’t perform well, they take it as a personal attack instead of constructive criticism and it’s that everyone wins attitude that is to blame. In addition look at the number of ridiculous lawsuits filed everyday by people whose feelings were hurt. Dr. Jean Twenge, professor of psychology at the University of San Diego, “concluded that Trophy Generations are narcissistic: focused only on themselves and incapable of acknowledging or appreciating others' points of view or circumstances. Twenge's conclusions are based on her analysis of the data from a standardized narcissistic personality inventory. Analyzing data from published reports, Twenge concluded that the average college student is 30 percent more narcissistic in 2006 than was the average student in 1982 (Business Week).” This could become an even more serious if the trend of doting parents and coaches rewarding mediocrity continues. Schools curriculum needs to be overhauled as well, to keep up with the rest of the world, and teachers need to become stricter and create a more independent classroom environment. The U.S. needs to end the “everybody wins society”, we created a narcissistic group of individuals who feel entitled to everything there is, have no sense of what failure is, and who are falling behind the rest of the world in education. Unless something is done about this the U.S. economy could continue this downward spiral, because the Trophy Generation won’t be able to live up to the work ethic and effectiveness of previous generations.


Aaron Gingerich