Should all form of competition be banned from school sportsdays?

1. 0

   Precious Williamsposted 14 years ago

   A friend of mine recently told me about her eight year old son who attends a schools where at Sports Day - there is no real competition in the activities and all the children are awarded prizes.  The first year her son thought this was quite cool, but now after three years he is very disenchanted. What do you think?

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      Lancer_2013posted 14 years agoin reply to this

      no! most kids love it!

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2. 61

   readytoescapeposted 14 years ago

   Its great method,…..if your goal is to promote mediocrity.
   
   
   
   
   As appears to be the plan.

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3. 61

   LaMamaLoliposted 14 years ago

   Competition should be encouraged - its healthy. If that happened at my son's school I would campaign to get it changed. How ridiculous to award every child, what's the point?

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   tommyjposted 14 years ago

   Do they all get A's on their academic work as well?

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5. 72

   mrpopoposted 14 years ago

   Isn't school itself a form of competition?

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6. 78

   jondavposted 14 years ago

   Thats the problem with todays society, we stop doing things just in case someone might not agree with it. If we stop children wanting or trying to win we will have a generation of people that won't want to push themselves later in life.
   
   Nothing wrong with competition.Nothing wrong with winning.

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   leebertteaposted 14 years ago

   Yes ban all competition. Let's stop giving the kids grades too. Let's have them advance no matter what. Let's dress them all the same and require all the same hair style. Let's go through great lengths to make everyone the same. Cookie cutter kids, factory families, all designed to meet state requirements, all equal. Ah Utopia!

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8. 59

   yoshi97posted 14 years ago

   We seem to be stuck in this mode where we want *everyone* to feel special for doing nothing, and looking at today's kids (not all - just most) we've reaped a poor crop from it.
   
   Many of today's kids are lazy and unmotivated, as they believe the real world will perceive them as special and automatically endow them with gifts, but we know this just isn't how the real world works. We have to compete to get what we want and we need to teach our children this at an early age.
   
   What's the sense in competition, you might ask? A fair question ... And I will tell you that it was the competition of two great countries that put a man on the moon and the competition of many European countries that founded America. Competition is the backbone of our advancement as a culture, and without it, we would grow fat and lazy - which is the road we appear to be set upon.
   
   I hate to see a child cry when they aren't as good at something as the other children are, but you don't leave that child to falsely believe they have skills that they don't. Instead, you find that something that the child *is* good at and bolster them with that instead.
   
   Maybe Johnny can't run like the wind, but it's possible he can work out a difficult math problem faster than any other child. Praise their skills and watch them grow to compete in fields where they can grow.
   
   As was said in this thread, we don't hand out A's to everyone in school for their grades, so we shouldn't praise students for other goals they haven't yet achieved.
   
   As a footnote, I think I read somewhere that Michael Jordan wasn't quite a stellar basketball player as a youth, but he overcame that to become one of the best ever. Also, I believe Einstein had troubles in school, but he went on to become the best physicist ever.
   
   To become more we need to know what our boundaries are, so we can work around them or push them down - that's how progress works!

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      BaliMermaidposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Schools are meant to prepare our children for the real world. If nothing else, the real world is totally competitive. How can schools do their job, of preparing our children for life as adults, if they cannot experience competition, both the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat (sorry could not resist)!

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   Cagsilposted 14 years ago

   No! Competitiveness is a solid human character trait that should be best utilized, so as to flourish. Suppression of competition would be bad.

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    Polly Cposted 14 years ago

    My son's first school, which he attended up to the age of 7, had non competitive sports days. To be honest, it just wasn't the same as the ones I remember from my childhood. They do this so they don't have winners or losers, yet all the children already know who the best runners etc. are in the class.
    
    Now he is in junior school and it is competitive now, but only in  a fun way. I think the children enjoy it much more like this, I mean, what is the point of doing it in the first place if you are not trying to beat the others?

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