Smart & Good High Schools - The Flippen Group

Smart & Good High SchoolsCHAPTER 2: Performance Character and Moral CharacterTHE CASE FOR COMPETITION:5 WAYS IT CAN AID THE DEVELOPMENTOF PERFORMANCE CHARACTER AND MORAL CHARACTERAt first glance, especially when there’splenty of evidence that students cheat toget ahead academically, athletes usesteroids to break records, and companies bend andbreak the rules to beat their competitors, the verynature of competition might seem to be antitheticalto the development of performance character andmoral character.Because of this all-too-common cut-throat competition,many see competition as a necessarily war-likerelationship: I win only when you lose, all means arejustified, and only one thing ultimately matters—winning. In this view of competition, all individuals—evenclassmates and teammates—are adversariesvying for limited external rewards (e.g., grades,playing time, promotions, championships, etc.).However, this notion of competition as inherentlyadversarial is really a corruption of competition’sroot meaning. In Latin, “com-petere” means “tostrive with.” In this original meaning, we competewith each other, not against one another. 7 Weachieve our individual best through the challengeand support of others: I realize my personal best(which doesn’t necessarily mean I win) when yourbest effort pushes me to excel beyond what I wouldhave achieved in isolation. In this way, competitionis part of a community that supports and challenges.At every level of performance competition, new levelsof excellence are achieved when participants findgood competitors. Clearly, in any competition we arestriving against our personal limitations and againstthe marks set by other competitors. However, thegoal should not be simply to win, but to pursueexcellence. If schools want to foster, across all areasof school life, a culture of positive competition thatpromotes the pursuit of excellence and avoids thedangers of destructive competition, they must establishsupportive institutional structures (and eliminatenegative ones) and work to cultivate in students apositive perspective on competition.What follows are 5 ways for young people tounderstand competition as having great potential tosupport their development of performance characterand moral character:1) Competition gives me unique opportunities todevelop my performance character and moralcharacter.2) Being a good competitor requires that I developthe self-knowledge and skills for managing thepowerful emotions and potential pitfalls of competition(e.g., stress, frustration, resentment of others,anger at perceived unfairness).3) Competition is a partnership, a form of cooperationbetween competitors where I show respectand caring toward other persons by agreeing toplay fairly and give my personal best so as tobring out the best in others.4) Seeking out good competition is a chance for meto realize a level of excellence I would not achievein isolation; winning and losing are less importantthan whether I give my best effort and learn ormaster something that contributes to my pursuitof excellence.5) The outcomes of any given competition can serveas a benchmark in my quest for excellence;engaging in post-competition reflection allows meto analyze what worked well, what improvementsare necessary, and what next steps should betaken.See Chapter 5 (pages 113-114) for a co-curricular programthat exemplifies these components of characterbuildingcompetition.19