High School, Collegiate, And Professional Activities

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

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.

Sports in conjunction with academics are capable of creating a balance that makes for a well rounded citizen and healthy, happy employee. Issues in the mix often come from the balance itself. Many students find themselves overcommitted to sport while others find they are not able to compete. I will examine issues in interscholastic and collegiate sport.

Have you ever wanted your school to be involved in all of your extracurricular activities? It could help you get scholarships and have an impressive academic resume but it can also have many consequences too. Schools should not be involved in student’s extracurricular activities because it can make grades suffer, make the student stressed and cause health problems.

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

Competition is healthy, but not too much. “Just as competition is used to motivate people in a variety of educational and business settings, it can be used to motivate your athletes in sport situations as well” (Burton) However, negative outcomes are not always the case. Athletics teaches essentials children need to be exposed to at a young age. Playing sports helps students to stay fit, stay out of trouble, and keep their grades up. If budgets cut athletics, it would do more harm than good. Reducing funding for athletics would negatively impact the overall student performance of academics and life lessons athletics teach.

There is a misconception that competition is bad; that self-esteem will be irrevocably damaged. If a student can experience the thrill of winning and the disappointment of losing early in life through competitive sports, they will be well equipped for the reality of life. Competition provides motivation to achieve a goal; to demonstrate determination, creativity, and perseverance to overcome challenges; and 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: a sports game; getting a job; bidding on a contract; not getting into the desired college. However, if competition is removed, subsequently the need to work harder is removed. Affirmative action removes that competition.

If they take away competition they take away competitive people as well. Many people in even gym class at our school play games very, very seriously. If we play King of the Hill, there’s bound to be a bloody nose or hurt feelings of someone being a little too competitive and trying to win. If we play run and gun there’s usually two guys that just play catch scoring touchdowns because they don’t want the other kids touching the ball because they want to win so bad. Take away the competitive sports they would lose some of those workhorse athletes, those “I’m going to do whatever it takes to beat that other team”

Daniel, a third year community college student, and I had a session related to balancing his academic and social activities. He was very concerned with his major and transfer options as well as his current financial situation balancing the demands of school assignments and his commitments to on campus organizations and church related activities.

Did you know that 41 million students are involved in extracurricular activities. (“Are Sports Ruining Your Life?”) Competing is when you take part in something to achieve a goal by going up against others who want to achieve that same goal. Competitions can make kids feel good and relieve the stress that children or athletes feel. Kids should have the chance to play competitive sports. Playing competitive sports give athletes a chance to make friendships and learn teamwork as well as many health benefits come from being active and competing.

During a single day in a person’s life in the United States, there are a multitude of moments where the drive to be the best rules everyones lives. In American culture there is the drive to be the first and best at everything. People take great pride in being the first person in line, or the best at a board game. In the United States, any other position other than first is considered a lose. Its prevalent in almost every aspect of society from sports to competitions on reality tv shows. Very rarely duo the majority of people remember the second place finisher, but they remember the person in first place. The affect of competition is not just felt when competing against another, but when your trying to hurry somewhere or beat a deadline. It is a basic instinct and cultural trait in the U.S. that promotes a greater desire for individualism than the rest of the world. The question, though, is what other prominent areas has the inherit need to compete seeped into American culture.

Each and every one of us is familiar with the concept of competition. Some of us have played sports as children, been involved in review games in class, or even have sat down with our family to play a simple board game. These types of activities may require different materials or levels of understanding, but they all revolve around competition. It can also be argued that competition is what drives us to success in life. We strive to become better workers at our jobs and better students in class ahead of all of those behind us. Sports are one of the most popular forms of competition that we can observe in today 's society. When it comes down to the actual definition of a sport, where do we draw the line of what really is a sport? Nowadays

Is competition healthy or unhealthy? How is it possible for someone to gain benefits from a competition but also been exposed to the dark side of a competition? Living in a competitive society is a wonderful thing because it's entertaining. We are all different so why settle in for equality? Or competition attempts to determine your self-worth over what others think of you, which is exactly the type of mindset that is ruining society. Moreover, lots of community around the world voice out their own opinion considering this topic and hold up a heated debate. From my point of view, the answer lies in the morality of individual. In this essay, I would like to discuss the light and the dark side of a competition and what characters molds