Recently, football player DeAngelo Williams released a video in which he discussed his distaste for participation ribbons. He even takes away his daughter’s participation ribbon from field day because he does not “believe” in them. He is not the first (not even the first NFL player), and I am sure not last, person to do this so publicly. But even without this video surfacing, I have seen many people who seem passionate about discrediting the participation ribbon, which is interesting since there isn’t much there to credit. So I am here to advocate for my friends, the participation ribbons.
Most of the critiques of this ribbon revolve around the idea that we are creating a little army of entitled children who don’t know how to cope with failure, who may lash out when they fail or choose to redirect blame. Which is totally different and completely not the same as the fact that we are blaming a ribbon for entitled children who don’t know how to cope with failure. People have some nasty things to say about participation ribbons, claiming they create a warped sense of self importance.
It’s a ribbon, probably green, with some variation of the word “Participant” decorated with some leaves or stars. And here’s the thing: It means you showed up and tried and it’s all “thanks for doing that.” What’s wrong with that? What’s wrong with shining light on effort? One time, I technically won a free throw contest because I was the only one in my age group that showed up. Showing up matters, and teaching that to kids is not about to corrupt them.
After the obvious whole “You participated,” it doesn’t really mean much more until we make it mean more. If it does mean more, it is because someone made it mean more. You can make this piece of fabric have as little or as much power as you want it to have. If you want a learning moment on succeeding or failing, create a learning moment on succeeding or failing. While it may provide a good opportunity, it is not the job of a ribbon, or lack thereof, to make this happen for you, and quite frankly, I think it’s a lot of pressure to ask this fraying strip of cloth for a life lesson all on its own. Participation ribbons do not create an “everybody wins” culture, as some people claim. Somebody still wins. And if you got the participation ribbon, you sure know it wasn’t you. Participation ribbons simply say, “everybody is appreciated” and that’s OK.
I am not here to say whether every Little League sport needs a participation ribbon or if we should cut them out entirely. As much as it doesn’t seem like it, I really don’t care. All I am trying to say is we can stop blaming it for what we have made it.
