Competition
and
cooperation
seem to be two opposite ways of relating to
others
. Some people believe that
children
should be encouraged to be competitive, while
others
believe that learning how to teamwork is much more crucial. Even though I can see the benefit of learning to compete, especially for girls, I do think
cooperation
requires advanced and well-rounded skills that need to be stressed more than the
competition
.
Life is a chain of ups and downs.
Children
can learn how to deal with failures and frustration during
competition
. With a sensitive and vulnerable ego, people can do crazy things, some of which are detrimental.
For example
, one of the most common motivations for men murdering women is men being rejected.
This
toxic masculinity costs life.
Children
, especially boys, should learn that failures are not the end of the world but just everyday life. We are still valuable and loveable people even though we have weaknesses and sometimes are not liked by
others
.
On the other hand
, girls should be encouraged to explore their aggressiveness and be proud to be ambitious.
This
will only liberate half of the human capital and make our society a better world.
For instance
, when asked how many female judges would be appropriate in court, RBG said, nine. Only with
this
ambition and aggressiveness, women can have the hope to break the glass ceilings.
Even though I passionately hold the view that
competition
is important for
children
, I do think
cooperation
needs to be encouraged and addressed more.
Cooperation
is more complicated than
competition
as the former requires all sets of skills,
such
as trust, leadership and empathy on the cognitive level as well as the emotional level.
For example
, when a student is doing a school project with other classmates, some of them would just want to take a free ride. It is easy to get agitated in
this
situation.
However
, a good leader or team worker would try to put aside his/her own feelings
first
and try to understand what matters to these members and how to use it to motivate them. Or what difficulties they met and how to help them to engage smoothly. Helping oneself through helping
others
and
thus
finding a win-win solution.
This
is the quality that heals a polarized society as we have right now and helps everyone to thrive.
In conclusion, even though I think
competition
can teach
children
a lot,
cooperation
and leadership are more urgent than ever in today's polarized world.