Should schools stop the practice of giving awards?

no. i dont want to give dang awards it makes people feel better than others and they put other people down when they get awards. and the people who dont get awards feel dumb or crumby or stupid or bad or less than other people or unimportant. so yea i am completely agaisnt this topic and if you got something to say about it talk to me or the HAND!! boyah no wait talk to the but cuz the hand dont wanna deal with you right now.

First of all I'd like to point out that the resolution is "Should schools stop the practice of giving awards" and that my opponent is on the con side, so he should really be arguing that No, schools should not stop giving awards.
Since, however, he apparently doesn't even bother to read what he types and wrote a paragraph attacking school awards I guess I'll attempt to defend them.

My first argument for school awards is a psychological one. SInce students are only in the earliest stages of developmental psychology, it is logical to state that they are probably in the first stage on Kohlberg's stages of moral development.

The first stage of the theory is the preconventional stage, the essential stage where children learn what is wrong and right. They have not yet developed personal morals and thus act only along the lines of reward and punishment. They must be rewarded for good behavior in order for them to learn what IS good.

According to Kohlberg, encouragement of good behavior, in addition to punishment for bad, is essential to developing a child's concept of what is wrong and right, so when he goes into the world and starts to develop a conventional and post-conventional morality he will be a good human being.

In a way, awards are also a form of operant conditioning. Students learn that they are rewarded for good behavior, hard work and responsibility, and thus continue to act that way even when awards are not given.

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its not all about right and wrong b3rk. its also about feeling bad if you dont get an award because say you were having a educational contest and only some people got awards and the other people will feel discouraged and wont try as hard next time. If they did good then they did good but then they will feel as if they are not better than others. They shouldnt not get an award because they didnt do AS good.

p.s. sorry about the crapy comment before.

You're right betnie. It isn't all about right and wrong, its also about preparing students for the real world.
In real life the "awards" go to the people who work hard to earn them. And if students do not learn this early, they'll be in a lot of trouble.
Sure, not doing as well as other students can be discouraging. But learning to deal with that discouragement is part of learning and growing up, that seems to be quite essential to a child's development.
Thanks for the engrossing debate.
P.S. Sorry about the Rick Roll earlier.