Our schools are a microcosm of the role of competition in our society. They show how competition becomes increasingly institutionalised, normal and expected as we grow up. We turn from playful, inquisitive and creative toddlers into teenagers and adults who are compared and ranked against each other, measured against standardised benchmarks and conditioned to do “better” than others if we want to succeed.
Most people would probably agree that some change over the course of our childhood is justified or necessary. We try (and often fail) not to compare our babies and toddlers, accepting that every child develops at their own pace. At the same time, we accept that when we leave school, in most cases training and education institutions or workplaces will need to differentiate and select to some degree based on our school record.
But these assumptions do not begin to answer a whole range of questions. For example, what skills and aptitudes do individual employers need in today’s world? Are these the same as those our society will need to thrive into the future? How do we best capture and reflect this range of aptitudes and attidudes? How do we measure and recognise effort and motivation compared to talent? How do we best nurture all of these so everyone has the opportunity to discover and develop their aptitudes and interests and engage fully in society?
notacompetition 