This doesn’t actually happen except in a few isolated incidents. The vast majority of kids do not get “participation trophies” for most events. Losers are not given giant trophies. Sometimes, people who participate may get a kind of consolation prize that isn’t as big as the winners’, such as if two teams play each other and one gets a trophy while the others get a ribbon. In that case, the idea is to recognize that the kids did something, which is better than sitting at home not doing anything. But it’s not ever confused with winning. And nobody takes home a giant trophy like that for losing. Ridiculous… but fortunately also false.
@realist666: There’s an easy answer.
This doesn’t actually happen except in a few isolated incidents. The vast majority of kids do not get “participation trophies” for most events. Losers are not given giant trophies. Sometimes, people who participate may get a kind of consolation prize that isn’t as big as the winners’, such as if two teams play each other and one gets a trophy while the others get a ribbon. In that case, the idea is to recognize that the kids did something, which is better than sitting at home not doing anything. But it’s not ever confused with winning. And nobody takes home a giant trophy like that for losing. Ridiculous… but fortunately also false.