Participation Trophies Send A Dangerous Message Analysis

As one is sitting watching their favorite athlete put a gold medallion around their neck, there may come a bit of spite. In the passages, “Participation Trophies Send a Dangerous Message,” by Betty Berden and “Participation Trophies Send a Powerful Message,” by Parker Abate, they portray the controversy surrounding awarding participation trophies to kids. In Parker Abate’s, “Participation Trophies Send a Powerful Message,” she appeals to the claim that kids should receive participation trophies.

In youth sports, everyone is mostly in the early stages of learning. Though talent is a contributing factor, the beginning of one’s career weighs heavily on what they have learned from their youth years. In “Participation Trophies Send a Powerful Message,” Parker Abate appeals to the claim that kids should receive participation trophies by revealing that self-esteem is a major part of one’s childhood. Highlighting the effect that watching another receive an award is degrading, she expresses that children need more praise than reticule. Abate states, “Any kind of honor can make a young kid feel as if he or she meant something to the team, and that could boost the child’s self-confidence – children today need as much of that as they can get in our society.” Here, Abate portrays society as a negative environment. She appeals to the children's emotional states caused when not receiving an award, supporting her claim that

Also, supporting that kids should receive participation trophies, Abate intensifies her claim by explaining that the trophies and medals do not have to say the same thing.