“Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a loser”. “If winning didn’t matter they wouldn’t keep score”. Over the years I have heard these statements on more occasions than I care to remember from people that I don’t care to remember. Each time I hear them, I am disgusted. They represent a complete distortion of what competitive sport is all about and, for anyone within earshot, particularly young people; they communicate a very destructive message. The message delivered is that anything less than complete victory is failure. If you can’t win, don’t try.
The real lesson of the Olympic games is quite different. The media does a good job of disguising it, but if you can wade through the haze this is the message you should come away with; where individuals commit themselves to a goal, work hard and dedicate their efforts to the achievement of that goal, there are no losers – everyone wins. More than 2600 athletes from 82 countries showed up in Vancouver recently to compete for a total of 498 medals in 86 events, including team events. More than 80 percent of these athletes will leave Vancouver without a medal. Only about 5 percent will win gold medals. Many of the athletes may feel disappointment at not having fulfilled their Olympic dreams of a gold medal, but I’m sure that most walk away with a great sense of pride and satisfaction in knowing that have indeed accomplished an Olympic feat. Through hard work, dedication and grim determination they conquered the demons of pain and self-doubt and the confidence-crushing skepticism of others to become one of the very best in the world.
Most Olympic observers, including the media and those of us watching on TV, tend to focus on the medal count and the medal winners. The media never interviews non-medalists after an event, only the medal winners. We do the same thing in our schools by focusing on grades and, in so doing; we do our students a disservice. We discourage effort by those who feel they cannot win because they cannot perform at a high academic level. They fear failure and the judgment of others and, as long as they do, they will not risk trying.
The most important lesson that young students of all academic abilities can learn is not the subject matter taught in schools, but that there is value in putting forth an effort — of doing your absolute best — regardless of the grade you achieve. If you don’t get it right the first time, then keep trying, and keep trying until you do get it right. Success in life is far less dependent upon how smart you are than on how well you apply yourself to a task. All students can learn at some level and, with effort, learning will occur. As with the Olympic athletes, the personal satisfaction and sense of achievement gained from knowing that they have improved themselves through their own hard work and persistence is the greatest reward that any student can receive.
This lesson should be taught at home and at school. But to do it right, schools and parents must acknowledge that; what is important is not the achievement of a particular grade, but that progress is being made. The standard A, B, C, D, F grading system should be abandoned in favor of a system that measures the student’s advancement along a scale of knowledge for each subject or skill being taught. Only then will students understand that, with effort, they can make progress — they can win.
Filed under: Education
