Should College Athletes Be Paid Essay

Should athletes be given a participation award during sport events? As stated in the text, “Pros and Cons: A Look At Participation Trophies For Youth Athletes” students and athletes should not be given participation awards because it teaches them important life lessons, makes them want to try harder, and condemns entitlement in athletes. First, participation awards should not be given out because they can teach kids lessons. When a student or athlete doesn’t receive anything and only one person or one team gets it, it can teach them to keep pushing through the hard times and how to do that. In the text it states, “[I]t teaches us how to deal with and overcome adversity, and that you don’t always get what you want. [I]t also teaches us how to bounce back and recover from loss” (Armideo). Participating in something as competitive as a sport, many may feel down and sad when they don’t win, but it allows them to help themselves and others as a team in the process. This proves that no participation awards can have a positive effect on kids and students’ lives. Furthermore, it makes them want to try harder.

When people don’t feel good about the way they just performed in whatever it is that they do, it causes them to try harder and strive to do better every opportunity they get. The text says, “while also providing athletes or performers with drive and purpose to be better” (Armideo). While the athletes are feeling bad about themselves and trying to get over that loss, it lets them reflect on what they did wrong and how they can be better from then on out. This shows that athletes need that experience and feeling of losing so that they can better themselves. As well as making students and athletes try harder, they also can cause a sense of entitlement in our society of