Should we teach competition or should we all get a participation trophy?
Recently in my Child Development class, we had a discussion about whether or not we should teach competition. There were several different types of answers and beliefs on this. We ended up talking about this the whole entire class period, and this is when I began thinking. Is it OK to teach competition? If it is, what age should we teach it at? If it isn't OK, how do we teach our children is what is fair and what isn't?
I think we should teach competition. I'm a firm believer that when you give children a participation trophy their whole entire childhood and don't teach them that there are winners and losers, they won't know how to handle things when they get older. Things as presidential winnings, football games in college, and even test scores.
If we are handing our children participation trophies for everything instead of teaching them how to win and lose, they will never understand how to accept the outcome of life events. Recently, America chose our new president for the next four years. President-elect Trump hasn't been welcomed into the White House and he isn't even there yet. Millenials all across the nation are upset and saying that they can change the outcome of the election. Wrong . Clinton lost. Trump won. There is no way on this planet that we can change this outcome. But why are millennials upset and acting like four-year-olds?
Because they weren't taught competition. People my age are participators and not winners or losers. When we played ball or were in dance competitions or at a hymn festival, we were given participation trophies instead of the winner receiving something and the loser not receiving anything.
Don't get me wrong, I think there is a certain age where competition should be taught and before those participation trophies are OK but is it really OK to teach our children that everything is fair? I've heard parents tell their children it's OK that they failed a test and the teacher didn't grade it correctly. OK, maybe once or twice, but not all of the time. What if your child isn't studying like they should be and it's their fault they aren't passing the tests? That is not the teacher's problem. That is the child's problem and therefore, they aren't winning - they are losing.
I think it is extremely important for parents to teach their children what competition is. There are friendly ways to teach competition and there are even ways to show children they can do better without necessarily losing, but we shouldn't show children that everything is fair and we all get a participation trophy. If we do, our children are going to ruin our world.
