We are all born with a competitive nature. Our competitive nature drives us to want to be fierce competitors. We compete for resources in the forms of food, jobs, shelter and finding a mate to have the dominant bloodline survive. Sometimes we compete without even knowing it. This is how we grew up, competing for food at the dinner table, siblings competing for parent’s love and attention. As kids we take this competitive nature to school and compete for the best grades, teacher’s attention or sometimes we act out or we become the class clown. As adults we compete to see whose going to have the biggest home, the best cars and who makes the most money. Parents want the best for their kids and their future and will push them as far they can without seeing the repercussions later. Pushing kids beyond their limits and not allowing kids to be kids first will harm them later on in life: stun growth potential, and create insecure children who constantly seek approval.
In Lisa Strick essay, “So What’s so bad about Being So-So? Lisa talks about our competitive nature and the need to be the best. Sometimes competition gets in the way of us being able to following through on a hobby, sport or activity without being given the side eye because we aren’t great that activity. Stick feels as though she let her son down because she didn’t start him in soccer at an early age like the other kids. She states, “ I’m sorry, son, I guess I blew it” (p. 204). She states this after the other kids made fun of her own son; “We don’t want that dodo on our soccer team… He doesn’t know a goal kick from a head shot” (p.204). Kids can be ruthless and not care what they say. Hearing someone say that we suck can make you not want to continue to try.
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... my responsibilities at home and school. After 8 years of playing, I not only was competing with others, but with myself as well. In the end I failed excel and now have my violin under the bed collecting dust.
Healthy competition can drive people forward. Allowing a kid to doing what they want because they enjoy it can open them up socially by allowing them to reach out and teach others that don’t have that same niche. If we force a child to be overly competitive, this decreases the child’s ability to grow in other areas in life because they are too focused on being the best. If they don’t live up their standards of being the best, this will cause the child to be insecure about their abilities and they will constantly seek approval. Unhealthy competition can detrimental later on in life when trying to get into a great school, find a partner or in getting a job.
Two best friends are torn apart. A man meticulously plots revenge on the person who got the job he was dying for. A nation is full of rage and fear because another country beat them in the race to walk on the moon. Sadly, all of these situations were caused by one thing, competition. In Alfie Kohn’s essay, “Competition Is Destructive”, he describes competition as having a “toxic effect on our relationships”(11). Although competition has many positive effects in this world, when talking specifically about relationships, whether it be between best friends, two strangers, or even entire nations, it fuels negative feelings and attitudes that transform people into monsters.
We are always searching for other people’s approval and acceptance. Being the middle child in my family has always felt like a competition for the attention of our parents. I lived fairly close to my elementary school growing up. I remember that every day on the walk there my mom would give me kind of a pep talk, “don’t talk to strangers” “make sure to eat and drinks lots of water” and before I left, she’d give me a blessing (she’s very religious) and the last thing she would say was “you better get straight A’s”. She used it metaphorically; meaning just the best you can be at everything you do and literally as in getting straight A’s. Being in elementary school, I didn’t get letter grades, but instead a numerical system where fours represented A’s. It was a routine that I’m very grateful I grew up with the competitive mentality, but it caused a rivalry against my brother. The moment I’d get home, I would excitedly tell my mom how my reading skills improved or a “cool” drawing I did in class. Later, my brother would come home bragging how he got an A on his history test or how he joined the soccer team. Seeing how he got more attention that day I’d strive to be superior the next day and even more involved growing up. For a second, I became unhappy being involved in so much school, I had to go to school from 8-3, had tutoring since 3-5, and practice till 7. This took a hard impact on my
There are people who are not as motivated, they are often referred to as the underachievers. However, once they have someone to compete with, they are more likely to become motivated to improve and excel. This is where competition serves as a healthy motivator. There is a friend who was exhausted of being constantly compared to his overachieving older brother. This caused him to start studying and working harder in order to become just as good as his brother. The situation showed how he did not need to bring down his older brother in order to be just as successful. Competition serves its purpose, when one finds themselves competing with themselves instead of their competitor. When one is competing with themselves, they are allowing themselves to grow and improve to become a better person. They do not have to compete with someone else, nor degrade others success in order to make their achievements seem exceptional.
Lastly, in youth competitive sports you can learn how to win and lose politely, which is important to the feelings of your competitors. Even though teens can learn these skills in school and in their household, competitive sports provide another way for children to interact and experience how to use life skills in the real world. Another example from the article, “ Pros and Cons of Sports Competition at the Highschool Level,” it
Abstract: Youth Soccer has recently evolved into a fiercely competitive arena. More and more children are leaving recreational leagues to play in highly competitive select leagues. While select sports are a valuable resource where children can learn how to socialize and become self motivated, children who start at young ages, ten and eleven, can suffer psychological and physical damages. A child's youth sporting experience is directly influenced by the attitudes, sportsmanship and behavior of their parents and coaches. Parents and coaches who pressure their children to be the best and not play their best are responsible for the high teenage drop out rate. By eliminating the "winning is everything" attitude, looking at the effort put forth by individual players and holding parents responsible for their actions we can return the game to the children.
For instance, I am a competition dancer. Going to different competitions you can see the differences in the way the dancers, teachers, judges, and moms view outcomes. The teachers just want you to do your best because no matter the placement received you had fun. When you are on a team, you want your team as a whole group to compete with other teams not each other. You see this with other sports too, such as baseball, basketball, soccer, etc. where kids try to outperform their teammates. This poses risks such as “loss of self-esteem, injuries… increased stress.” (Berger, pg. 245, 2014) However Active play and competition do not only pose risks they contribute to the following as well “Better overall health, less obesity… respect for teammates and opponents.” (Berger, pg. 245, 2014)
Statsky also makes another faulty assumption, which is that competition is an adult imposition on the world of children’s play. She says in her article, “The primary goal of a professional athlete – winning – is not appropriate for children” (629). Children compete to win in the same way that adults do, and they do so on their own without any adult pressure. Common playground gam...
When the coach turned his head, the seven-year-old stuck a finger down his throat and made himself vomit. When the coach fumed back, the boy pointed to the ground and told him, “Yes, there it is, Coach. See?” (Tosches A33).It emphasizes the fact that if a child gets hurt once, they will fear the possibility of getting hurt again ,so they try to find excuses to prevent themselves from playing the game.Second,Statsky states how competitive adults have drained the fun out of children's sports and made the game unappealing for children.She cites Martin Rablovsky, a former sports editor for the New York Times says that in all his years of watching young children play organized sports, he has noticed very few of them smiling. “I’ve seen children enjoying a spontaneous pre-practice scrimmage become somber and serious when the coach’s whistle blows,” Rablovsky says. “The spirit of play suddenly disappears, and sport becomes job-like” (qtd in Coakley 94). It shows the fact that competitive adults are oblivious to their actions and don't notice that what they are doing can really affect a child mentally.Third, Statsky is concerned that competitive sports will lower a child's self-esteem and make them lack confidence.’’Like adults, children fear failure, and so even those with good physical skills may stay away because they lack
When kids think they’re good, they might make fun of others who aren’t as good as them even though they aren’t good either. They will get their dreams crushed because they will think they were good, but when they go against better competition, they will be crushed (I speak from experience). They will also make fun of other people who are better than them because the better people don’t get trophies for trying. It’s just overall absurdity that kids should even get a trophy for not trying, because it also makes you feel entitled.
Exposure to compete overstretched disappointment and sexuality of a kid at an early age leads to adverse negative effects on the growing young child. Exposing the child to competition at tender age exposes them to improver development, both socially, physically and emotionally (Cartwright 1105-1107).
There is a misconception that competition is bad, if a child can experience the thrill of winning and the disappointment of losing, they will be well equipped for the reality of life. Competition provides stimulation to achieve a goal; to have determination, to overcome challenges, to understand that hard work and commitment leads to a greater chance of success. Life is full of situations where there are winners and losers; getting a job; a sports game; not getting into a desired college. People need to learn how to cope with disappointment and then to look forward to the next opportunity to try again. Competition also teaches us to dig deep and find abilities we never knew we had. The pressure to win or succeed can often inspire more imaginative thinking and inspire us to develop additional
In the modern world of ours today, parents have many ways to bring up their kids. A good example is that parents can search online for better ways to teach their children. With the internet, anything is possible today. However, bad parenting is common around us. To raise a child is a hard job to be done. As children grows, their assumptions and aspirations will be altered. It is not easy to anticipate what will happen next. Due to family problem, National Runaway Switchboard also have statistic about 14.3 percent of the teenagers between the ages of 10 to 18 had the thought of running away from home.The two major problem is that parents are constantly comparing their children with others and not attentive listening to their kids but both can be solved by doing the exact opposite.Paragraph 2:Poor parenting root from parents trying to compare their children with others and not giving attention to their kids. Why is comparing their children considered bad parenting? Radwan (n.d) explained that parents that compare will raise children with jealousy and furthermore diminish their self-est...
Competition produces anxiety, which can interfere with learning and disassociates with one’s own body. It is not instinctual because it is taught and it damages people and creates stress in their life. Competition teaches people to give their worst while they only focus on what their fellow mate is doing. I agree with Rubin that “competition limits people’s ability to lead happy and satisfying lives”, for I am assured that competition is destructive to children’s self-esteem, it interferes with learning, sabotages relationships, and isn’t necessary to have a good time.... ...
“Survival of the fittest” is a notion that I firmly advocate. Competition brings out the best in people, and I am a very competitive person. Competitiveness whether with one's self, or with others arouses the desire to succeed. My mother has taught me that competing with yourself is even better than competing with others because you struggle to become the best person you can be, without settling for exceeding the limitations of others.
Yes, it is to a certain extent. Competition is good for us as it challenges each individual. Without competition, there would be no standards and we would not know how to improve on areas we lack. In addition, we may not know where we stand, be it mentally, physically and academically. Different kinds of competition challenge us in different aspects and helps us to progress and move with times.