by Olha Romaniuk

Created on: April 10, 2009

A little bit of competition never hurts anybody. Does that still hold as true in the academic world as it is in the professional counterpart? Many students, parents and teachers worry about the repercussions of a competitive academic environment as being too stressful and as conducive to setting unrealistic goals for many high school and college students. There are also worries about what happens to those students who are left behind in the dust of a fierce competition that can often commence among the top-ranked students in a class. Do those who fall into a second grade tier ever have a chance of gaining as much respect, faculty attention and as many benefits as the students who always put forth their all?

It's a basic tradition of competitive education: rewarding student achievement through honor rolls and academic awards, recognizing them in newsletters and dean's lists. But many people feel that for every star student, there are many left behind with bruised feelings and crushed dreams. That does not only go for those students who are doing poorly in school but also those who come in as close seconds on the academic pedestal. After all, what does a student really learn if he or she works hard on a project or a proposal, but at the end falls short of expectations or does not measure up to par to the winner's standards.

The truth is that the ones who are left with the most bruised feelings of all are not the students who fail to succeed, or the students who do not try hard enough, but those observing from the side bleachers with an outsider's perspective. The principal of one school in Nashville, TN said that he just didn't believe in ranking students. He had done away with his school's honor roll before the statewide controversy. "I discourage competitive games at school," he told the Associated Press. "They just don't fit my world view of what a school should be." He firmly stood behind the decision because of his personal belief that competition breeds envy and failure.

But what about looking at the benefits of a competitive education, instead of pointing out the flaws for a change? What does a student really learn when there are no rewards for hard work, and when winners are afirad to be recognized for their achievements? Even the most persistant of students will, sooner or later, grow tired of doing all the hard work without seeing any special rewards. What is so wrong with awarding a scholarship to someone who is really showing promise in regards to education?

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