The Education System: Competition, Success, Student
“You can teach a student a lesson for a day, but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process for as long as he lives.” -Clay Bedford
It is not astonishing that education and competition are intimately related. It is natural for children to compete and, therefore, established that competition is proffered for educational use. On the other hand, competition dominates adult life to such an extent that society especially nurtures their young ones to compete.
For instance, in Sparta, the most prosperous Greek city in the 8th and 7th centuries BC, physical education was subjugated by contests, specifically the Olympic Games, where Spartans often won more than half of the top honors.
Education theorists contradict whether competition in education should be encouraged or curtailed. A theory asserts that since competition is an inclusive part of every culture and education transmits culture, it is necessary to integrate competition into learning. Also it is important to learn about what is eLearning to boost your learning skills.
While another theory views competition as an evil element in the culture, resulting in an enigmatic stance towards competition in schools, which puzzles students, who then try to compete successfully without making it appear that they are competing.
As students, we strive towards making the best of our grades, wanting more, more than ours, more than others, but at what cost?
The cost of a letter or number depicts how smart and intelligent you are and how divergent one is in gaining their grade.
The education system itself embeds into the student that their grade matters the most, but does the student matter, or does their effort matter? We are in an education system where we are more interested in the earned grade than the consumed knowledge. For instance, whenever we are being given back an exam or assignment, that we spent our hard work on, all that matters is the grade: “Why did I get this grade? Why isn’t my grade the highest?”, not learning process itself.
We have all experienced the same panic on the result day, the fear in our eyes, the fear in our peers’ eyes, the trembling hands, and shivering bodies. The cries after not gaining an A* or an A grade, the joy after gaining that A grade. The jealousy of not getting a good grade or the happiness of getting the highest grade.
We are being trained in such a manner that gaining the A* is our ultimate goal in life. It is what makes us feel successful only, making us feel like we have achieved everything in the world. While gaining a B or a C, D, or E grade is the end of the world; which it isn’t, life is much larger than all this.
The cycle of learning and success starts much before our formal education. It starts the day we are born and hence success starts from there and doesn’t finish until man does. The true meaning of success is the accomplishment of a goal or aim (often set by oneself). Success is present in the simplest things in life, even that B or C grade. As it is your boundary of success and let no one take it from your grasp. Mark your success yourself in a world where everyone tries to define your success.
Grades are important, but they won’t be on your tombstone or the only source of remembrance in this world. The world is a much larger canvas than this. You are important and that’s what matters.
