Perhaps,we should go both directions, making education more competitive, and less competitive, more competitive for those who are better students, and less for those who are not. Perhaps we can see how competitive sports leads our youth to excel in sports. Even so, competitive education can be used to bring students to their best in education.
But, there is a danger to bringing such competition to education. The pressure to perform well on tests can be debilitating, even leading to suicides. I think of the No Child Left Behind criteria, and believe we should go just the opposite direction. We should allow some children to do well without believing all have to. We should accept the performance levels of all students, even if they are failing to grasp the most basic principles.
But, competitive education? We have ventured into it. We have ACT, and other such tests. And, students already feel competition to do better than each other on assignments. We might even have school math teams that compete with other schools. That is the type of thing I am talking about. And, that is something we have not really tried much.
I say, have school academic teams competing with each other. Olympus High vs. Timpview High? It need not be just in football and basketball. Bring the competition to academics. Perhaps having weekly competitions would be too much, and perhaps dual meets need not be the norm, but have inter-school competition. Have regional and state championships.
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