Getting Awarded For Potential Skill-Gain and Effort is Encouraged

Children should be awarded participation trophies because in today's society, it is difficult to get very far in being the best in any kind of sport or competitive environment. There can only be very few players that can be called the best, the amount that seemingly go so above and beyond. However, there are a lot of kids that are on sports teams who do put in the best effort that they can put forward. Although they may miss the chance of being called the best by a small amount, they should still be awarded for their effort. Without said effort, a sports team would not necessarily be a sports team. There is more to a team than just the star players. In some cases, a trophy may only be a physical entity that may not make sense in the future: however it is the gesture of accomplishment that counts. In the end, what matters to a child as they progress in life with this experience in the back of their minds is that they actually had a head-start at the basic values of what it means to work alongside others and to encourage the positive building of their self-esteem.

Children giving each other high fives at an end of a game

In this video source, the main point is that players should not be given participation trophies; kids should learn to "toughen up" and work as hard as they can for a trophy, that being the only way to get one. Anything less than that, then forget about it! There is a man that is later interviewed about the trophies: however this part of the video is biased for the fact that the man in question works  for a company who makes trophies, as shown by the shirt he is wearing along with a trophy that he holds. However, this exactly does not make his point invalid. It is true that kids should work hard, and at such a young age, they may get frustrated if they are not the best of them all, or if their team doesn't win a certain game.

There is a point given by Betty Berdan, a high school student that had actively participated in sports for a long time. She states that the more trophies that are given out to kids, the more significance behind the whole point of trophies is lost. Whatever definition of a trophy that is. After looking through many other points set by others, is there really a specific definition of a trophy? Anyways, she further argues that every single kid that had participated in something: not just necessarily sports, should not feel as if they are a winner. "It is dangerous for them to think this way". She elaborates with the point that only the ones with the superior skill-sets should be awarded, that in the future, there cannot and will not be any kind of award of just trying your best, no matter what. Although that may be true for the complicated world that we live in, we shouldn't necessarily push this topic of this kind of sport to that higher level. The necessary development of a skill-set comes with growing up, and so may be the unfortunate fact that the world is tough.

If I were to bring up an example from my own personal experiences, I would talk about my time in my middle school's choir. It was near the end of the year of when all of the 8th graders got "trophies" with our names on them and the name of the choir we were in (concert choir for example). Although this is on a different level compared to sports, it is definitely a competition, especially when I was competing against other schools for medals. 1st place in District, 2nd place in State. It didn't really hurt my feelings at all when I received a 2nd place medal. Besides that, I was well aware that I gave my best effort, and it is important to many who are involved that they are recognized for their hard work and dedication to choir. It was quite a bit of work, for we would always practice for concerts and whatnot. The lessons of dedication and potential build-up for skill are present here, as they are important for any kid's future.