English 301B-21
Competition among children is a debate that has lingered for generations now. Some people argue that competition is good while others argue that competition is destructive. During competition, children in a contest or event like sports or a class contest apply their most favorable skills and knowledge to emerge as the best. There will always be a winner and a loser. However, losing does not necessarily mean not succeeding; but ideally can highlight their weaknesses and strengths. In many cases, competition creates fun, encourages children to give their best, and promotes healthy self-esteem; however, competition can also foster inequality, rivalry, and low self-esteem. Despite rivalry and inequality that is promoted by unhealthy competition, healthy competition should be encouraged as it promotes learning, which is a key advantage.
In every competitive activity and contest, one can only succeed by giving the best effort that will secure a win. For instance, in school exam contents, children learn to be inquisitive on how they can achieve the best. Healthy competition is advantageous since it encourages children to work hard and use their intuition to surpass the required expectations. Sometimes it requires them to work as a team to achieve a common goal. Competition in class encourages all students to give their best (Hanna 45). Besides, everyone gets a chance to compete; therefore, everyone, whether winner or loser, wins in that they learn valuable lessons about strengths and weaknesses, as well as strategies for future contests.
Competition can help children to build excellence and character through practice and dedication. As children compete, they continue to learn the important lessons in life, such as hard work and being smart. Therefore, it helps children to build their character based on their experiences (Friedman). For instance, in a sports competition, children learn from mistakes and how to be innovative to win. It is an important skill needed into adulthood as one enters the workforce. For one to succeed as a professional, one must be able to do things differently to have an edge over competitors. There will always be people who feel pressure to take short cuts or the easier routes to beat others; it is common to see people opt to cheat to get the results quickly and easily, such as copying an exam or doping in sports. In such cases, competition provides opportunities to make the right choices that help to build character and integrity of a person since one is supposed to use ethical means while competing.
Every opportunity in life represents competition that inspires great performances in order to succeed. Competition in sports encourages discipline, commitment, and sacrifice to succeed and become the victor (Friedman). These concepts are very important in almost every real life situation; without patience, discipline, and commitment, one can easily lose out on the opportunity. Competition among children or adults helps in the creation and setting of goals. Goals give people directions where they should put their efforts. To achieve such goals, one must be willing to persevere the hardships and keep the determination to achieve goals. For instance, in a class competition, a child can set a goal to attain an “A” grade in mathematics. To achieve the A, the child must be willing to attend all classes, engage in group discussions, be open to a series of revisions, and research the work thoroughly. It amounts to the determination to achieve the goals (Friedman).
According to Sievert, most parents shield their children from the possibility of losing instead of helping them to cope with such losses. Many times, parents push their children to win, forgetting that they can never shield them from losing. While winning is a very important aspect of competition, losing and accepting defeat is also important. Losing in a competition teaches important lessons in life that one cannot do without. The most important lesson people can learn from losing is learning from mistakes, appreciating those mistakes, and improving oneself for better results, all of which promotes growth. Without competition, it would be hard to know where one can do better and improve on weaknesses. Every aspect of life is a competition and losing challenges people on how they can better themselves or how they can perform better. As parents or teachers, it is important to teach children how to accept failure because it only makes them stronger and able to cope with such failures throughout life.
Competition can create fun, especially in sports. Competition in sports encourages children to participate because of possible rewards. A game without a winner tends to be boring because it's the urge of winning that keep competitors in a race. Sievert described how her five-year-old son competed in a pumpkin-decorating contest in which everybody won. Despite efforts to make him understand that everyone who had competed had won, her son kept nagging, asking who had won the competition. It shows that children know that every game must have a winner and a loser and everyone looks forward to this. Another time, Sievert explains, she once played a game with her children and after they played twice without a winner, her children were no longer interested in playing the game. Therefore, a competitive game or contest creates more excitement when there is a winner and a loser.
Competition is a very important aspect of life as it prepares children for real life situations. Therefore, competition is not just about awards but the learning experiences that have been mentioned earlier; it prepares a child for life challenges in the future. Adulthood is suffused by competition throughout life: getting a job, excelling in place of work, and establishing a thriving business. Lessons taught along the way help a child to embrace winning and losing in a positive way (Hanna 68). According to Friedman, key lessons to learn from competition are the importance of winning, accepting defeat and bouncing back to win possibly in future, performing beyond set targets, coping with stressful situations and not losing focus when others are watching.
However, competition has its disadvantages. It must have winners and losers, and losing can lead to a person’s low self-esteem. According to Sievert, accepting defeat, especially for children, can be depressing. In turn, the depression can result in low self-esteem where children believe they are not good enough. Therefore, most parents try to shield their children from this humiliation and self-pity. Sievert explains many situations in which she felt she had to protect her children because she could not face the frustrations of them losing. Competitions can negatively affect children who cannot accept failure.
Despite efforts to create healthy competition, some competitions turn out to be horrible when people have vested interests. Unfortunately, the competitive culture, especially in sports, puts pressure on children that they have to win no matter what. Sometimes agents of competition, such as parents and teachers, create an environment where “good” is not enough, and a child feels the pressure to win instead of being encouraged in the importance of competing. In such competitions the winning is not necessarily about helping children to become better, but rather parents or teachers achieving their own goals. Such unhealthy competition attracts rivalry and creates enmity in competitions. Sometimes there are cases where parents put pressure on teachers or coaches to ensure their children win. In turn, the coach creates an environment not meant to encourage individuals or teamwork. “Coaches who lose the spirit of good sportsmanship in the heat of the game.” (Sievert) Sometimes, competition attracts focus and determination in the wrong areas, for instance, when children pay too much attention to sports and forget about education (Friedman). It is mostly motivated by unhealthy competition, which is aimed mostly at making a name for oneself. Moreover, competition can attract negative motivation instead of focusing on rewards, such as the motivation behind winning a contest in order to have revenge on a person or a circumstance rather than for the sake of the competition itself. Friedman claims, “The forces that have led to increasing inequality in education, the workplace, and other spheres have come to the world of play.” Therefore, competition today has led to increasing inequality among children.
Healthy competition is beneficial to children as it promotes personal growth, encourages children to give out their best, develop their character as they excel, and helps them to deal with real life situations and disappointments. There are cases of unhealthy competition that encourage low self-esteem, discrimination and inequality among children. A healthy balance of understanding ones weaknesses and strengths and focusing on the ultimate goal can allow children to view competition in a more positive light, allowing them to grow into well-balance adults with realistic expectations toward the future. Therefore, competition among children should be encouraged as it can bring out the best in them.
Works Cited
Friedman, Hilary L. "The Impact of Competitive Youth Sports on Children - Robert Wood Johnson Foundation." RWJF. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2016.
Hanna, Donald E. Higher Education in an Era of Digital Competition. Madison, WI: Atwood Pub., 2000. Print.
Sievert, Suzanne. "It's Not Just How We Play That Matters". Newsweek.com. N.p., 2010. Web. 14 Mar. 2016.
