Competition is all around us – it is inescapable. It makes the strong stronger and the weak, weaker. It is also responsible for bringing the best out of people and making them capable of surviving in a fast paced, stress inducing world. And those who are worst hit by this competition are those who are most impressionable – the children.
Children are often wrongly thought of as being immune to competition and the rat race, which couldn’t be farther from the truth. How many of us wouldn’t have seen young boys weeping because the teams they were playing cricket didn’t win in inter school tournaments? How many of us wouldn’t have seen young teenagers lie, cheat, and manipulate just to be the winner at reality TV shows?
These are all effects of competition taking over our finer sensibilities – the kind that is known as unhealthy competition.
So how do we inculcate healthy competition in children, the kind that will make them better individuals while inspiring them to be better than themselves? After all, competition with one’s own self is the right way to compete.