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| Help | 81% | 973 votes | Total: 1205 votes | |
| Hurt | 19% | 232 votes |
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Add to FavoritesAs a teacher and a mother I feel that it is not competition itself that may harm young people, it is the way they are prepared by their parents and their teachers to deal with competition that really matters. Parents and teachers need to give children appropriate and healthy learning experiences involving competition and support their young learners through the competition. The winning, the losing and the experience of being involved and trying are all important learning experiences to prepare children for life.
Competition does not just involve sports, and winning on the football field. It involves almost every aspect of life. This morning my three year old said to me 'I bet I can finish eating my toast before you Mummy!' That is competition at a very basic level, but still competition - and it certainly does not harm him if it means that he is going to finish eating his breakfast!
Competitio n is inevitable in life, it is an ingrained part of the way humans behave and deal with one another. Competition begins at home between siblings, friends and cousins. It continues at primary school, throughout secondary school and into university.
But it doesn't stop there! We need to prepare our young people to compete for the job they want and the life they are going to be living as adults. It is so important that young people experience the highs of winning competitions and the lows of losing. With our support, guidance and modeling of acceptable behavior of both winning and losing, our young people will learn to thrive with competition and push themselves to be the best that they can be, rather than being hurt by competition, or afraid of it.
What hurts young people is the modeling of adults of inappropriate behavior towards competition. Who hasn't seen the father (or mother) berate their child beside the sporting field for their poor performance? Who hasn't also seen the mother or father display inappropriate behavior when winning too? I confess I have even seen teachers use competition inappropriately in the classroom in hopes of improving their students' academic performance. I'll say it again. Competition can enrich a young person's life and make them stronger and a better person. It is the support, modeling and scaffolding that we as adults provide, that deems whether it will be hurtful or inspire personal growth.
Learn more about this author, Heidi Heywood.
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Hurt
Competition. Where would we be without it? That is a question worthy of serious consideration.
Does it hurt young people? I think it does worse. It hurts anyone and everyone who cannot play the game.
It threatens our very survival on this planet.
The concept of competition is inextricably linked with other man-made mental constructs, such as "winners" and "losers", "success" and "failure", all of which have served to create the kind of society we have today,which is greedy, performance driven and where profit comes before people and, often, before common sense.
There is nothing wrong with a degree of competition in the right place. It can motivate some individuals and groups to greater achievement in the sporting arenas. There are, however, many areas of life where competition is a negative force or entirely undesirable.
Here is a parable.
There are two groups of people. Each contains the same mix of ages, disability, education, ethnic origin,
sex. They have no food. Two large basket of apples are placed in front of them. When the whistle blows, each group must feed its members.
Group One, the competitors, form a team with an aggressive strategy for getting as many apples as possible. One individual is stronger and fitter and takes the role of leader. The leader commands the other team members who are strong enough to pitch in and get as many apples as possible from the basket closest to them. His team rush forward and start grabbing. There are, though, in this team a woman who is heavily pregnant, a blind man and a little girl of two who is still only toddling. They cannot hope to join in the feeding frenzy. Feeling helpless and impotent all they can do is watch and wait and pray that the others, younger, physically more able members of the group will choose to share the apples they
get their hands on. "I bet I can get more than you" they cry to each other as they scrabble for the fruit, pushing each other out of the way. Fights break out. "That's mine". When they have got the apples both people and apples are bruised, they are stressed, hot and bothered. "I collected more than you,so I eat more than you" they say. "I fought for this. Its mine" As the the "strongest" sit with apple juice running down their chins, the blind man, the woman and the toddler sit and wait. When all are eaten, the pregnant woman picks up the discarded cores and gives them to the blind man and the toddler and herself. The others, full and satisfied,sit and boast about how many apples they got that day.
Group Two, the collaborators, start by asking who needs an apple. The pregnant woman , the toddler and the blind man all say yes as do the rest of the group. The pregnant woman removes her shawl and the rest of the group, apart from the blind man, go to their basket and collect apples and carry them in the shawl to the blind man. The toddler follows along and picks up any apples that have been dropped. When all the apples have been fetched the blind man counts them and hands each member his/her share. Everyone has enough to eat and when they are finished , the blind man suggests they plant the seeds so that the will have more apples in the future. The group think that a good idea and they all help with the planting.
What is clear from this illustration is that competition is fine if you are able to compete. It shows that competition marginalizes some people who have different skills and abilities but who get pushed aside and are considered "invalid". It demonstrates that competition is aggressive and divisive, making some people "haves" and others "have nots". It shows that competition creates "better", "stronger" " faster" "bigger".
The collaborators in this story show how co-operation involves everyone, great or small. It includes and validates each individual and makes use of the skills and abilities of all. It leaves no-one hungry for either food or self esteem. It allows for creative group endeavor and does not lead to stress or boastfulness. It is unifying rather than divisive.
Our teenagers need to learn that , ultimately, there are no winners and losers, that each of them are valid members of the human race whatever their abilities and that no one is at the bottom of the class, or at least that the bottom is as necessary as the top! It is not just about the ego. Is about the future of mankind.
In a world of shrinking resources, the need for creative collaboration is far greater than the need for "dog eats dog" competitiveness. The old competitive ways really belong in the stone age and is not appropriate for the challenges facing the human race in the 21 Century.
The Good Lord made all things equal. Not the same, but of equal importance. It is for us to teach our children this, well.
So where would we be without competition? There would be less personal glory, fewer Oscars and probably less material wealth for the few. There would be diverse cultures and wildlife in abundance.
We would only take what we needed and respect the living creatures who share our world and cannot compete
with the gun, the bomb and the chain saw.
Teaching the next generation that competition is healthy and encouraging the competitive spirit can only be good if we want more of the same. Do we?
Learn more about this author, margaret hillcroft.
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