Competing is never easy. School is not easy either. Imagine what you will have when you combine both.
Competitions are part of our journey. We may not have experienced competing formally but one way or another, we have competed in some form – be it for attention, for time, for a better job, for a better future.
We send our kids to school because we hope that these institutions can better equipped our children when they face the real world. And since schools are faced with this great task of preparing the kids to the real world, they see to it that they give our kids opportunities, opportunities like competitions.
Competition is healthy because it does not only develop the fighting spirit of our children. It develops sportsmanship as well. It teaches our kids how to prepare prior a competition – making them more responsible. It teaches our kids to have faith and to have hope. It may even teach our kids teamwork and cooperation. It teaches our kids to be brave, to face problems or tasks with courage. Competitions are not bounded by sport events, or quiz bees, or talent shows. We may not realize it but our kids become better individuals every after a competition. If he won, then he becomes more self-confident. If he loses, then he becomes a better person in that he now learned the value of accepting defeat gracefully.
Competitions are our children’s stepping stones. If we remove it from them, we remove a lot of opportunities to grow as an individual. Yes, they might get hurt along the way, and as a parent, I would not want that as well. But we have to realize also, that they will all grow up. And that they will not forever be ours. So we have to do our share and let them experience it themselves. I am quite assured that the opportunities that the schools give the kids are healthy in nature. Teachers go out of their way to process an activity when things don’t turn out the way they wanted to.
Schools are there for a reason. They do not just give competitions just because they need to. Teachers after all, are like our kids’ second parents. So lay down all your fears now and let us be the first examples on how to make competitions work for us and not the other way around. Let our children be and let them learn.
