Competition vs. Collaboration

Reaching our full potential

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

I’ll admit, I’ve never been a competitive person. Maybe it’s because I was always tiny for my age. I didn’t grow to my full height — 5'2" — until I was 17 years old, and my weight usually hovered around 89 lbs. Not exactly an athletic build.

Throughout K-12, I was humiliated in PE (gym, as we called it) class, as the teachers chose captains for team activities, and those captains then chose their teams. I was always among the last to be chosen. Sitting on the gym floor, wishing I could just sink into it, I knew I was considered a hindrance to any team.

When I was hired as a PE teacher for a primary school, I never allowed students to pick team members. I formed the teams, and I varied the team members for each activity. No one ever knew who they were going to be paired with. It was my way of looking out for the vulnerable, while also instilling a spirit of teamwork.

I also stressed cooperation over competition. I chose games like parachute activities that depended on collaborative efforts, and were accessible to students of all shapes and sizes. Most of the kids loved these activities. There were always lots of smiles and laughs. And while someone would occasionally berate another for “dropping the ball”, the other students would chime in with words of encouragement to…