Sangha of Auspicious Companions

September 23, 2011

a project of CharityFocus

6 Tips for Raising Non-Competitive Kids

Competition, according to author and lecturer Alfie Kohn, is defined as any situation where one person can succeed only when others fail. Kohn is convinced that we’ve all bought into dangerous myths about the value of competition in our personal lives, workplaces, society, and economic system. He laid out his arguments in his 1986 book No Contest: The Case Against Competition, and he’s been spreading the word ever since. He insists that competition is not human nature; it’s something we learn. “The message that competition is appropriate, desirable, required, and even unavoidable is drummed into us from nursery school” he writes. And according to Kohn, competition undermines self-esteem, destroys relationships, thwarts productivity, and discourages excellence. Here are six tips gleaned from his writings and talks, backed by hundreds of studies. { read more }

Be The Change

“Keep feeling the need for being first. But I want you to be first in love. I want you to be first in moral excellence. I want you to be first in generosity.” Martin Luther King Jr.’s perspective on healthy competition. { more }

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