by Lateralus

Created on: February 16, 2009

Competition hurts young people for a vast array of reasons. Our parents, teachers and even peers sets goals for us that, even though may be reachable at times, they aren't always attainable. It can create hate, envy and jealousy between the best of friends and it can set young people up for failure.

Competition has done nothing but hurt everyone since the beginning of man kind. It always seems to start out friendly and we may have good intentions, but the human element of envy takes over and as fallible humans most times we can not control it. Sure it is great to challenge ourselves to become better, but when we post ourselves against others we always set ourselves up for faliure. There is always the chance we may lose. It doesn't always matter what kind of skill we have or if our opponents skill is less than ours. Sometimes the luck of the draw determines the out come and it can make us feel inferior when we lose. It is evident in sports today that we competition ends up being the most imortant thing in an athletes lives and it creates arrogances and egotism among most athletes. Of course there are always exceptions, but not enough to make a difference for the good.

Children are a different subject altogether. Children are easily influenced by the experiences they encounter throughout their youth and it makes a larger impression on who they become later in their lives. Children are weighed down the pressures of lacking self confidence and insecurities in the first place so it is even worse on them when they have to endure the trials of competition.

Most people will make the excuse or argument that it makes them stonger and helps them learn how to be good at what they do later in life, misleading them to believe that life is all about competition. What a horrible thing to teach children. Life will only be about competition if we make it so. We have to change our thinking and use logical pragmatic reasoning to get through life and not make everything a competition. You can challenge yourself in life without making a race or game of it. Sure you should set high goals for your self, btu you should also set lower goals in case you do fail.

We should teach children that it is alright to fail. We should teach them that if they fail they should get right back up and dust themselves off and try again. We should teach them that if they fail that there are always other options and paths they can take. Competition does nothing for children, but teach them that it is alright to try to be better than everyone else and if they aren't then they are nothing. Competition would be ok if it wasn't for the human element and we can never take the human element away.

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