Competition in Education – Is it Necessary?

From an early age we’re instructed to excel in academics. Excelling, we’re told, means consistently making higher grades and performing better than all our peers. In addition to learning the fundamentals of math, science, language and history, we learn another fundamental: life is all about competition. And those who rise to the top are the most successful. Any desire to educate ourselves is supplanted by the desire to always make the highest grade, and knowledge is not pursued in order to learn and grow, but as a way to position ourselves as more superior than others.

Writing against promoting competition in schools on his website, author and human behavior expert Alfie Kohn, writes that there is no “healthy competition” and all competition is eventually damaging to children. Kohn states that in a competitive culture, children are told that it’s just not enough to be good, they must be better than others. This has detrimental effects on the self-esteem of those who do not end up at the top, which is the majority of children. He adds that instead of working against each other, we should be encouraging the children to cooperate with other to enhance the learning experience for each student.

To help you further understand how competition impedes the learning process, we’ve shared Sadhuguru’s thoughts on the issue below, where he answers a meditators question about helping children withstand the pressure and competition in education:

“The pressure is only because you are putting two absolutely unique beings in comparison. Is there one more person exactly like you on this planet? No. There is only one like you. Each being is an absolutely unique being. That is so for your child also. But now you are trying to put them all into the same compartment and compare them with something that they can learn – ABC or 123 or something – and make them feel better or worse about it.

It is you who brought that competition and comparison because for most parents it is not about education, it is about first rank. All they want is that their children sit on top of every other child’s head.

Their whole effort in their life is how to sit on top of the pile. Everyone wants to sit on top of the pile but only a few can be on top. The others will naturally end up at the bottom and if our focus is just to sit on top of the pile, naturally they will get suffocated under the pile. This is bound to happen, there is no other way.

That orientation of education has to go. “No, I cannot do anything, the schools are like that.” No, schools are just catering to your attitudes. If your attitudes change, the schools will change. They want to run the business the way it works. All you want is that somehow your child should get 100%. It does not matter what happens to the child. The schools are just trying to cater to it because you are paying them. They are just trying to fulfill their job. In the course of your activity, the child is unhappy and getting ruined, but it does not matter. You want him to be the topper in the class. This is a sickness which has to go. We are just ruining a whole generation of people with the kind of schooling we are providing.

True human genius will not flower if this kind of education happens. True human capabilities will not find expression in competition. When you are trying to race with somebody, you are only thinking of going one step ahead of him, that’s all. You are not thinking of what your ultimate potential is.

True human capabilities will find expression only in absolute relaxation. Your mind, your body will work best and find fullest expression only when you are joyful, peaceful and quiet within yourself.”

How has Sadhguru’s insight into education affirmed or made you reevaluate your thoughts about education? Tell us in the comments below.