Is competition in school helpful or harmful to students?

This article was first published on writers website http://www.helium.com/users/351546 

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Discouraging competition among our young people is discouraging the very best that is America. Discouraging competition in our public schools would result in our schools creating a nation of sheep, mindless clones with no motivation to excel.

That's one of the weaknesses of a socialist or communist society. Where everyone gets equal treatment, there is little motivation to compete. Little motivation to outdo another. Little motivation to excel. By discouraging competition in our public schools we would be, sad to say, headed in that very direction.

Some parents are so paranoid about their child suffering rejection if he or she tries out for an athletic team or cheer leading squad and doesn't make it. What that parent needs to tell the child is, "You didn't have what it takes to be a sports star or cheerleader, but there are probably other areas where you can excel. Like academics. Try harder to bring your grades up, and maybe some day you'll be able to win a scholarship!"

Children need to understand the reality that everyone can't be a sports star or the most popular person in his or her class. But that shouldn't discourage him or her from trying. There's a lot more to school than sports, and many other areas where a child can be challenged to do his or her best. Maybe the child is a great writer and could excel on the staff of the school newspaper. Children must be told that as long as they do their best that's all that really matters.

Joseph P. Kennedy once told his sons, "Do your best, and then the hell with it!" That's what competition is really all about - doing your best. Everyone who has read anything about the Kennedy family knows that to the Kennedy children, competition was a way of life. Weekends at Hyannisport would often find the whole clan out on the lawn choosing up sides for a touch football game.

Striving to do your best carries over into adulthood. When the child enters the business world later in life, what better preparation could he or she have than to have learned to compete? Competition spurs us on to become better people. Competition spurs the Corporate world on to produce better products.

We here at HELIUM risk our egos by trying to write the best article that we can on a particular subject. A few of us will excel and come out rated number one. But if our work results in a lower rating, that only motivates us to rewrite the article to improve it, or try harder the next time we write another article.

Competition is what made America great.

How can it do anything but help a young person?