[Rahila]

Nayeela:
The people in the modern world are fuelled by competition. There ar conflicting views among people when it comes to instilling this feeling of competitiveness in children. Some believe it should be promoted among the young while others are of the opinion that learning to work together is the way to go. This essay is going to discuss both the aspects and emphasize the reason why i believe children should be taught to become co operative and not competitive.

There are a few reasons why people might justify the need for competitiveness among the young. Firstly, this becomes pretty useful in judging the merit of students. Competitive exams have a quality of being a fair judge to help sort the students in different instruments of education. For example, the national entrance exam for medical colleges in a country like India where the number of students wanting an admission in colleges, which have limited number of places available, has become a good method to determine the capabilities of students. Another factor is that competitiveness makes children work hard and not get complacent. The “green eyed monster” or healthy jealousy which stems from competitiveness could work out to benefit a person. For instance, this psychology boost is seen very clearly among athletes who keep pushing to get better than their peers. So, as competitiveness becomes a medium to prove merit and it also pushes a person to work hard, it is thought of as being favourable.

Though there are benefits to having a child become more competitive, it has a lot of drawbacks as well. In my opinion, being co operative is a far greater virtue which helps a child develop empathy. The child, now having known the skill to work with others grows up to be an empathetic and responsible adult. For example, a study at Harvard had shown that children when taught co operation have better mental health as adults. Another very important factor, i believe is when children are raised in a non competitive and non toxic environment, they tend to have better social and communication skills which are important attributes to have in corporative sectors. For instance, when the managers of multinational companies were interviewed, it was found that they were not taught to be competitive as children. Therefore, as empathy and good communication skills are really sought after these days, co operation comes out as a superior skill to have.

To conclude, though competitive spirit is essential in certain aspects of our lives, to have it instilled among the young is controversial. In my opinion, i firmly believe we need people who are able to work with others and are empathetic rather than the ones who constantly compare themselves to others.