On Wed, 21 Sep 2011 22:09:48 +0100, Orchid XP v8 wrote:

> On 21/09/2011 02:01 PM, Mike Raiford wrote:
>> On 9/21/2011 3:16 AM, Invisible wrote:
>>
>>> No, that's "cooperation". "Competition" is where you disregard
>>> everybody else and beat them out of the way by any means possible so
>>> that you get what you want.
>>
>> But dealing with competition and exposing children to competition is a
>> way to apply being fair and just. What you describe as competition is
>> actually self-centeredness, and probably just plain antisocial. Being
>> competitive means doing your best, not to bring the other competitors
>> down.
> 
> Doing *your* best is about *yourself*. It has nothing to do with anybody
> else. It's something that everybody can strive towards, all on their
> own.

[...]

> Competition is fundamentally about "I want me to win, not you". It runs
> /against/ the idea of being fair and just.

One can compete against oneself as well.  Running around a track, trying 
to beat your own best time, for example.

> Then again, real life is unfortunately competitive from time to time,
> and children need to learn how to deal with that. (At least until we can
> find a way to eliminate it.)

Competition is itself not inherently bad.  Competition drives people to 
put out better and better products and services, for one thing.

There is such a thing as *healthy* competition.

Jim

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