Conventional wisdom tells us competition makes us perform better, that it pushes us towards excellence. But some would disagree – author Alfie Kohn, for one. ‘Some things aren’t just bad because they’re done to excess; some things are inherently destructive,’ he writes. ‘Competition, which simply means that one person can succeed only if others fail, is one of those things. It’s always unnecessary and inappropriate at school, at play, and at home.’
But what about so-called ‘healthy competition’? ‘The very phrase “healthy competition” is actually a contradiction in terms,’ says Alfie. Yet others believe that competition is good for kids not only because it is natural, but also because, if we monitor the experience, they can learn to take positive lessons both from the joy of winning and the disappointment…
