Analysis Of Losing Is Good For You By Ashley Merryman

In “Losing Is Good for You,” Ashley Merryman argues that constantly rewarding children is an all too common and toxic practice in society that needs to be stopped immediately since it degrades the true merit of winning. She insists that losing is an essential experience that is imperative to the development of children and their impressionable mentalities. Although she claims that losing is good for kids, she recognizes that people should be aware of the intellectual and emotional differences that are unique to each child before administering constructive criticism. According to Merryman, adults should stop assuring children that they are all identical winners because it drives them to underachieve, leads them to devalue the success of winning, …show more content…
In the article, Merryman correctly takes note of the fact that constantly praising children results in them giving up easily when faced by difficulty or resorting to taking the easy way out of life’s situations. Personally, I myself have witnessed countless students in my high school resort to cheating in rigorous advanced courses simply because they know they will be awarded for passing the class with the bare minimum satisfactory grade. Even though my fellow classmates are capable of achieving much better grades, they decide not to put in the effort since they will be rewarded for passing the class regardless of how high their grade is. In addition, I think Merryman is right about the idea that nonstop gratification can drive children to feel incapable of overcoming strenuous situations when they are first faced with difficulty. For me, constantly being reminded of my intelligence in elementary and middle school led me to feel disheartened and incapable when I began taking rigorous courses in high school. Perhaps I could’ve adjusted to the advanced courses much easily if I had been reminded of the academic areas I needed to improve on as a child instead of being praised for …show more content…
If children are never faced with the adversity of losing, I think they will definitely begin to act entitled. As these children grow up, they will develop beliefs that suggest that they are so smart they don’t need to try as hard as others. For instance, I have witnessed my fellow classmates enter higher-level courses with the idea that they are so intellectually gifted that they don’t need to study hard in order to get exemplary grades. I can only assume that these individuals will continue to feel entitled to the same rewards as their hardworking counterparts throughout college and even in the workforce since they have never faced eye-opening