Competition is healthy, it is what makes us human. It has been apart of our genetic makeup since the beginning. It is inevitable that every one of us will enter a competition at some point in our lives. Whether it is athletics, music, grant applications, college applications, a job, or to move up the social ladder. As children we are taught to compete and win or lose but to play the game, to challenge ourselves and practice and do our best. Competing has become downplayed in some schools and geared up in others.
How can we empower students to have confidence and determination but also be humble and have character? Giving students the power of voice enables them to build strong respectful relationships with their peers as well as their teachers and mentors. When students feel valued and responsible for their own actions the humility and character will come naturally. It is important for teachers to provide numerous opportunities for students to display their strengths and passions and explore new ways of coping with defeat and failure.
Empowerment comes from not only believing in yourself but having others believe in you as well. A great team creates great individuals. Success comes as a team but also as accolades for the individual. Accepting your strengths and successes is easy for most people, it is recognizing growth from failures and defeats that tend to be challenging. In a classroom or on the field it is imperative that teachers forge strong trusting relationships with students so that they feel safe to fail. So when they fail they see it it as a learning experience and grow from it, recover quickly and become more determined and resilient.
In my classroom, I create lessons where as a collaborative group they problem-solve and explore to reach a goal. But I also provide opportunities for students to shine on their own. Defeat is inevitable I tell my students. As humans we fail far more than we succeed. Growth comes from both. Weekly I set up an activity or debate where there is no right answer, where failure is the only option. This builds character and drives them to cooperate and discover new ways of doing things. Competition need not be a win-win situation or a win-fail situation it only needs to be a growth opportunity.
Competition is healthy. Setting up children to feel equal and where every student gets a trophy defeats the purpose of competition. There will be those individuals or teams who shine and deserve to come in first place. It is doing a disservice to our children to tell them they will be great at everything and succeed at everything they do. This is putting too much pressure on them to be perfect. What we need to do to empower our students is to teach them to keep a growth mindset, seek grit and rigor, innovate and take-risks and accept defeat. Michael Jordan, Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton all had failures but they were determined to find success. That is empowerment through competition.
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