Something I saw on the news a while ago now that just come to my attention again the other day at work. The question is how important is competition in life and what do people think about attempts to desensitise competitive activities that may prepare people for the real world.
Specifically, I'm thinking about things like sports day at school. The article I read was banging on about how they no longer award certificates to the winners, runners-up and third place competitors but to everyone who competes. Similar ideas are being implemented in the academic sphere with awards for attainment and effort being removed in preference of a generic pat on the back.
The theory, as far as I can work out, is that nobody gets their feelings hurt. There's no crying, no moods, no disappointment, no anger. Further than that I guess you could say it removes an unnecessary element of life at a young age. Kids are often ridiculed by their classmates because of their inability to perform, whether that be throwing a javelin or finding a remainder. I imagine that sort of thing can be quite disruptive and derogatory to a small child.
However, that's not what I think on the subject. My whole life is based around my ambition to be the best at whatever I do. It's unrealistic if not impossible but it's got me this far. To remove the prize at the end and the award you receive would be truly poor in my view. That feeling of being better than someone else at something and the confidence it instills is tremendous. It's what made Britain great. I blame much of our international sporting failure on our general lack of drive to succeed and this mentality (particularly in British sprinting for example) that finishing second best is okay as long as you tried your hardest. Try harder. It's far better to be the victorious Brit then the stereotypical plucky one.
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