Topic: Many children and students are taught to push themselves to be better than others rather than work together for everyones’s benefits. To what extent do you agree?

Many kids as well as pre-teens are taught to push themselves to be better than others

instead

of working together for everyone's benefit. To my way of thinking, there are both pros and cons in different contexts. In defence of the

first

argument, there are all kinds of reasons why

this

is a good idea if you ask me. For one thing, kids do well at school and university. They always have to be in a competitive mind to perform their best.

This

means they are afraid of failing.

For instance

, the high school entrance exam in China is a classic case in point. Many teens have to compete with their classmates to get into a high-ranking university under the same exam conditions. A reputable university is almost a guarantee of employment. Be that as it may,

however

, there are

also

reasons why

this

view has problems, the way I see it. In the

first

place, it creates stress on children.

This

is because they have to study much harder for longer hours, which is not good in the long run. Stress is bad for children's health. It may lead to possible mental health issues, including anxiety, depression and so on. On top of

this

, pri-teens who grow up in a competitive environment lack people skills. Their competitive behaviour might be a challenge for them to work in a group. If they do not have good people skills, life will be very difficult. Turning to my own experience, the way things are when it comes to

this

in my country, China, is very similar to the circumstances across the world over. My home city of Beijing is a textbook example in

this

regard. Here, youngsters are always taught to compete with their peers either for academic or leisure activities from a young age. Many of them do not have good people skills because they are more self-centred. At the end of the day. there are good and bad to all choices we make, both as individuals and as a society. Parents need to be mindful of the amount of pressure they put on their offspring.