Participation Trophies Send A Dangerous Message By Betty Deren

Did you ever receive those small medals back in middle school after participating in a sports match? In two articles, “Participation Trophies Send a Dangerous Message” by Betty Berden and “In Youth Sports, Participation Trophies Send a Powerful Message” by Parker Abate, they talk of the negative and positive aspects of handing out participation awards to teams or athletes. Some people may say that giving participation awards allows others to have a false sense of society or reality; however, because of the acknowledgement of achievements to athletes and the applicable life lessons learned from the effort put into the game, kids should be able to receive participation trophies.

There are some people who say that giving participation awards allows kids to have a false sense of society or

Paragraph 4 of “In Youth Sports, Participation Trophies Send a Powerful Message” by Parker Abate says, “Self-esteem is a big part of one’s childhood....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.” This situation can argue that through these awards, the kids will achieve self-esteem or self-confidence, which both play a major part within childhood and that Abate continues the lesson with “So while these children may not win the championship, working with a group of peers with the goal of succeeding teaches them that in life, teamwork will be extremely important along with giving it your all.” Moreover, this is another lesson correlating to teamwork as a needed skill within reality and society. In the quote, it explains that through working with others, teamwork, and giving it your all are learned through collaboration and contributing to their lives inside