In the article “Successful Failure,” Varenne, Goldman, and McDermott powerfully demonstrate the way a spirit of competition, ranking, success, and failure has become a central feature of education in America and of American culture at large. Before graduation and entrance into the workforce, schools, testing corporations, the government, and other bodies of judgment rank students against other students and schools against other schools. Later in life, bosses, CEO’s, and market forces rank workers against other workers and companies against other companies. On a larger scale, nations compete against other nations. The aim of this article was to examine the cultural forces at work in these various processes, specifically in the context and contest of education.
Personally, I have had many educational experiences that have demonstrated the ubiquity of this culture of individualism and competition. Whether used for positive or negative ends, this ethos seems to be a defining characteristic of America. But as the authors mention, not everyone can win this race. There are always winners, and there are always losers. As I read this piece, I began to wonder, “How could an educational system ensure the victory of each and every student?”
One potentially viable answer to this question would be the model of humanitarian competition often mentioned by both Makiguchi and Ikeda. In this model, the terms of “the race” are different than those of the status quo. People, schools, religions, and nations would compete with one another in a contest of seeing who could lead the most people to happiness, or make the greatest contribution to mankind. As the authors of this article mention, competition has many different effects. It can cause anxiety, but also be a great motivator. One teacher mentioned, “Give them an activity to get them to practice word skills, and they moan and groan at you. You make it into a contest, and suddenly everyone wants to be an expert at defining vocabulary words.” (p. 114) Our current educational moment provides a great opportunity to use the American spirit of individualism and competition towards a positive end that will ensure the prosperity and success of all.
1 comment:
Yeah! I like you mentioned about humanitarian competition. When we compete with each other, we don't even know what we're competing for-most of time for one's one success. We, students, have never been explained about the purpose of competition but about how to be better than others through competition. However, even if the competition is for good purpose, there will be still winner and looser if we don't emphasize the process of competition rather than the result of it when we are to use the competition as a mechanism of motivating students. Competition should be the process of testing one's limit and of improving it.
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