I couldn't very well let the Olympics go by without getting in on the commentary at least once, now could I? I am Canadian, born and bred, so I'll add my voice to the comments about the Canadian performance. People are questioning why our showing has been so poor, and many are answering with "we did our best", as if that should be enough. The only problem is that the judges don't award the medals for personal bests. To win gold, you have to be the best in the whole field of competition.
When I listen to all the fuss being made, I hear a lot of it in terms of the approach being emphasized in our schools. Competition has become a bad word in our classrooms. We aren't teaching the kids that they will have to face challenges in life. We aren't helping them to learn that, when you encounter one, you work to surmount it. If it defies your first efforts, you have to get determined. You have to give it your all. You also have to learn, however, that if it still is beyond your grasp, you accede gracefully to those who can master it, and then you move on. The real world out there doesn't give smiles and pats on the head, just because someone tried their best. You achieve what is demanded or you are not acknowledged. Is competing to be the best wrong? Ask yourself. If you needed to have brain surgery, would you want to know that the person about to open up your skull had "tried their best" at med school, or would you rather they had graduated at the top of the class? Is competing to be the best wrong? Would any major corporation promote someone to the position of CEO simply because they tried their best? If that company still wants to be solvent next week, they must have a proven performer sitting in that chair. Is competing to be the best really so wrong?
Why do we pussyfoot about in the classrooms, and mess with the students' ability to cope with reality? The Public Speaking Competition that used to daunt so many has now become a thing of the past. Many did suffer sweaty palms and get tongue-tied when it was their turn in front of the class, but those with public speaking abilities could take the day. The rest of them learned the lesson that you have to face a lot of tasks in life that aren't going to be your personal choice for favourite. You have to do them anyway. In our schools, however, it no longer happens that way. Now we have "Speaking Celebrations" and everyone is encouraged to get up there. There are no more standards to meet. If they hem and haw their way through less than a minute of the poorest perfromance in recorded history, they still are praised and given a ribbon. If they shine and truly give a gem of a speech, they are praised and given a ribbon. Now there's real incentive to strive for peak performance! Every one of the students knows that those ribbons have absolutely no significance at all.
There used to be an acknowledgement of the fact that not everyone is a number one. Those who are, will win the prizes. Not everyone is gifted at science. Those who are, will take the prize for best science project. Not everyone is the best basketball player in the school. Those who are, should be chosen for the team. Not anymore. I have had the experience of being asked to coach a team, and then being told to place kids on it, "to encourage them to behave better". I'm talking here about kids who give every indication that they are headed for time behind bars. The idea is thay'll be "nicer" if we put them on the team. The reality is the team loses, because we have not emphasized achievement. Get some special programs going for those kids, for sure. But don't screw the rest of the team. Are we out to win, or not?
The popular theory is that if we have outright competitions, the same people will win each time. The "ordinary" students will never find themselves being handed the award. That is now deemed to be wrong. It's thought to be harmful to the motivation of the ordinary student. Well, wait a minute here, folks! What about the motivation of those out-of-the-ordinary? What are we doing to them? Are we beginning to see the results of what we've been doing to that, out there in Athens? The reality of the world outside the classroom is that most will never stand in the winner's circle. Most will never be singled out as super achievers and given the resultant recognition. That is, quite simply, the way of the world. Be glad that there are others who do surpass you, especially if you ever have to lie down on that table in the Operating Room.