Competition Is Competition

Competition between peers makes people strive to try and be better than their opponents, and can be healthy or unhealthy depending on the competitors and their responses to the competition.

Competition is prevalent in various aspects of life, including sports, school, and jobs. Everyone at some point in their lifetime will have to compete against others in order to achieve a goal or earn a prize. It’s how the world has worked for a long time; it’s survival of the fittest and this minor competition between everyone is how we have continuously gotten smarter, faster, and stronger. Competition is necessary to a certain degree, but how much is too much? It’s definitely not a bad thing, and as long as there’s a healthy amount, it can be beneficial because it fosters self-improvement, and it will push people to go all out and try their absolute best.

Alfie Kohn states that “competition by its very nature is always unhealthy” and has written an essay opposing the concept. There are various examples of competition in the world today, from sports that the world watches on television, to spelling bees children in elementary and middle school participate in. Competition is a part of our daily lives whether we’re aware of it or not; however, it does have its disadvantages that leads me to support Kohn’s opinion.

Lately though, these games have lost it’s purpose and the lessons these players could be learning are far from what is transpiring. The emphasis on winning or losing has significantly outweighed what these sports are all about; teamwork and having fun. Alfie Kohn, author of “The Case Against Competition” found a study researched by David Johnson, a professor at the University of Minnesota, and his colleagues. They previewed all the studies they could find on the subject of competition from 1924 to 1980. Sixty-five of the studies found that children learn better when they work cooperatively as opposed to competitively, eight found the reverse. It is proven that you can get the most out of a topic whether it’s school work to sports, you learn the most from working in an atmosphere where they work together not against each other. In addition, children have been enrolled in intense sport training as early as the age of 4, not allowing them to have a chance to really pick what sport they are interested in. A lot of times parents hope to fulfill their dream, by having their offspring due what they never got the chance as a child. This doesn’t give kids the chance to develop and make decisions for themselves when it relates to the sports they want to play. This causes children to not only unhappy but dependent on

By participating in competitive sports at an early age, kids develop life skills to help them with this dilemma. They learn that when they see others being successful, that it is due to the hard work they put in and not just by chance.

After reading Children Need to Play, Not Compete by Jessica Statsky I thought she brought up some very valid points. I do think that this is a topic that should be scrutinized. I have a different view of the subject. I think that competition can be physically, and psychologically harmful if left unchecked by "abusive/uncaring" adults. I do think that with the right, caring and team work fostering environment competition can fostered without harmful effects, and can lead to learning lifelong skills that can bring emotional joy.

Pupils are expected to compete in order to achieve better grades than their fellow classmates.

In Hannah Pandels’s article, Healthy Competition is Good for Children, she makes the statement that it, competition, is a necessary and essential part of our society today. This article was written partly in response to numerous other articles stating the opposite but one was singled out. The American author Alfie Kohn. Now this fits into the childhood development debate that has been ongoing lately regarding the theory that today’s kids are more entitled to things and have less problem solving skills then previous generations. With that back ground she begins to vocalize her thoughts regarding the issue. Her thesis is clear, it is in the title for goodness sakes, that competition is a normal part of growing up and it is essential to the proper development of children. She states “competition breeds excellence” (Pandel) this simple statement engulfs the

If students have more of a variety to pick from in school then they will be more healthy and active. On project play.com it states “if kids play sports they will have healthier bones,muscles and joints helping control weight and reduce

Furthermore, sports teach children how to deal with problems in school. Sports are needed to teach sportsmanship, which is very important in today's world, because it is needed to cooperate with other people in school. School sports teach sportsmanship by putting them on a team which will have them contribute to the game, and working together to win. With all these great benefits, it also makes students more social. Daniel Gould also states "This does not mean, however, that school sports are not without problems.

One example of this is the multiple competitions that science olympiad participates in. What I mean by this is that students can have fun going against others throughout the year. Also, we can see how good we are and compare our scores with past scores to make improvements. This is usually quite fun. Another example of competition is competing within our group. Only half the kids in the club can go to the statewide competition. This means that we have to push ourselves to work harder. It also means that we have an air of friendly competition. Which makes things much more fun. Of course, science olympiad is also very much a competition of knowledge and

Difficult competitions force people to try their hardest. Without putting forth the best effort, games against strong opponents can not be won. While typically we associate pushing ourselves to win with sports competition, it can be used in other aspects of life like test-taking or job applications. We must push ourselves in anything we do to achieve our goals.

Statsky argues that, with college admissions, grades and especially jobs being very competitive some parents could argue that it is never too early for competition. Nonetheless, it is also important to work side by side to be successful in life. May be just until children are emotionally ready for competition, perhaps we should draw more attention to working together and independently performance in team sports rather than

Competition being one of the major issues that often must be addressed in the business world, it is important for a firm to learn on ways to reduce the impact of the competition. Competition is definitely an important factor in helping a business

It’s important for a child to understand the positive impacts of competition despite a loss in a game. Adults go through competition everyday, from getting a job after a successful interview or missing it from an unsuccessful interview to promotion because of work well done or demotion at work. The basics of competition taught early helps a child succeed later in life. Team Sport equips a child to cope with competition in a friendly environment. Achieving a goal by being part of a team will help a child gain healthy competitive skills that they can use for the rest of their lives. Sports also help a child cope well with both a loss and a win as part of life. Learning to positively handle both the winning and losing side of playing a sport combined with good sportsmanship is a characteristic that carries over from childhood to