June 26, 2018
Competition… Compete… Compētere. The etymology of this words an intriguing one: Compētere literally means searching with/together, or asking for with/together. One is literally searching for or striving for the same goal, namely that of excellence and achievement.
I noticed that one of the grade 3 girls was particularly competitive when it came down to her work/academics; more often than not, it was a matter of who finished unscrambling words first, or who finished the assigned colouring sheets before the other person. Where does competition fit in the new curriculum? In light of inclusivity and diversity, the notion of competition and “winning/losing” seems to have gone out the window and has transitioned to giving out participation ribbons. The benefits of this is a reduced sense of anxiety and pressure to be the best in relation to others, but I worry about what it means to really be victorious in any sort of sport, or even in the business world: only one company can vie for a job or project… Can there be multiple first places? I am not fundamentally against participation rewards, or recognition, but no company recognizes the work of a employee who has recently joined them, there is not award for being married for a day, nor is there such a thing as a “day one jubilee”. Time, effort, dedication, work, and results are things that would garner recognition.
In my opinion, it seems that there is a confusion or a lack of distinction between recognizing the fact that people even consider putting in effort at all for anything versus the quality of it. Thus, in any activity, performance, or faculty oriented objective, what is it that we are trying to promote and recognize? I daresay that, in those cases, the focus is not on the fact that we are individuals with inherent dignity, honour, and due respect. The focus is on what we can do well.
Today I taught a science lesson surrounding the nervous system where the students had to engage in a ruler-drop activity. Their challenge was to grab the ruler as quickly as possible while someone held it above their hand while the palm was oriented side to side, making it such that the 0 cm mark was on par with the top of their hand. The majority of the students became fixated on competing and beating each other, as opposed to focusing on doing their best. In the end, we had a few students who managed to “instantaneously” catch the ruler before it even dropped at the 0 cm mark. Not possible, in my humble opinion.
Ultimately, I think there needs to be a clear understanding in the pedagogical field, especially with this new curriculum based on human persons and core competencies, between recognizing students for being individual humans befit for dignity and honour, and recognizing work and excellence. Neither should be compromised for the other.