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I want to share with you one incident that has made me very unhappy and about whichI want your opinion. As you know, my daughter Hameeda, who is just six, goes to schoolnow. The other day there was an art competition at her school. Perhaps, mothers wereexpected to train their children at home. I didn’t, but on the morning of the competition Isent her to school with some paper and crayon. Hameeda left home looking very gay andhappy. She returned home in tears, quite broken-hearted and sobbed inconsolably. Shewas bitterly disappointed that she had received no prize unlike some of her friends. Shecould not understand why this had happened as they had all done the same thing —drawn pictures on paper! After I had pacified her and bought her a little gift and reassuredher that her painting was beautiful she seemed a bit soothed. It hurt me to see a little childof six, so pained for no fault of hers. As I tucked her into bed at night my little Hameedaasked “Ma, today I did less well, didn’t I? Dhruv did better than me, isn’t that so?” Sucha question from a six-year-old did come as a shock!The whole incident left me furious and puzzled. I was naturally very distressed at mydaughter’s unhappiness and I was worried about her loss of self-confidence. I feared thatfeelings of inferiority and failure might forever be instilled into her little mind even fromthis tender age. On the following day, I gently told her teacher that they could havespared the children all this pain and frustration if they had only skipped the competitionand allowed the children to draw or paint, which is such a beautiful thing to do. Theanswer was: “But surely the good ones should receive some encouragement”.Tell me, Uma how important and integral to learning is competition? Must we applaudexcellence and punish mediocrity to make children learn? All this grading and rankingand prize-giving that we have in our schools, are they necessary? Can’t children learneasily, happily without comparing themselves with others and competing hard againsteveryone else, as if, somehow, their success depended upon some else’s failure? Mustlearning be so cruel? Do write to me soon.Yours affectionately,(Zubeida.)Many of us have had such experiences, haven’t we, of feeling highly elated andthrilled on being praised and rewarded and also of sinking into dejection at notsucceeding or at being ranked low?Some people feel that organising various competitions and spurring children on to dobetter each time, competing with everyone else is a good thing, for it makes childrentough and when they grow up they can compete with the same spirit and make it to thetop as the most successful people in the world. Others feel equally strongly thatencouraging competition at school by giving marks, grades, ranks and by organisingvarious competitive situations destroys something beautiful in the child. Comparing onechild’s ability with another’s and constantly motivating one to beat the other, is beingviolent to the inner being of the child by sowing seeds of jealousy and hurt. Would it notbe right that instead of training pupils to be tough and competitive when they grow up,we helped them to become so intelligent that they would refuse to compete and bringmare discord into the world? Because the best in them has been nurtured they wouldflower and help others do so. Therefore, should we not let them learn at school with a