Between Competing and Cooperating
Some people think that schools should use teaching methods that encourage students to cooperate.
Other people think that schools should use teaching methods that encourage students to compete.
School is a crucial part of a child's life, because it reflects on himself as an adult. It's vital to receive a good education under the right conditions, this involves the teaching methods applied. These are subject to every school’s way of teaching, but we can see there has been a debate on whether they should be applied in a cooperative or competitive way.
We are on the opposite sites when it comes to this subject, but we must exhibit both sides. On a mental aspect it's vital for students to grow in an environment in which they feel free to develop, with no judgment coming from their peers and instead feeling like a team. Yet at the same time it helps to build up character by having that competition like learning experience, because it can help to incentivize the urge of studying to occupy the first place.
As well, both sides offer great habits students will treasure for their whole lives. One being that urge to study, to continue learning, to give your best in every project and making the most out of your work. As well, it gives the student a taste of the real world environment. On another side, growing up to cooperate not only helps you on an academic aspect but also on life, helps you establish relationships, gives you the capacity to rely on social support, increases your self esteem and even helps to achieve goals.
The impact both can have on an adult’s life is wide.
The student who learned with a cooperative base teaching method will always seek for success and a healthy working environment, this will help him develop healthy relationships on and off work. It's widely known how an unsafe working space can affect everyone and reflect directly on their work ethic. This will preserve relationships and increase the urge of workers to get better but in a non-competitive way, more like a leveling one in which everyone is at the same page and contributes to others work.
On the other hand, giving the student the chance of growing up with a clear idea of how the real world develops, awakes from an early age the need of competition and helps with the different transitions we face growing up and gives a visionary look to life. This way when they face cruel reality they can get used to it by knowing how to manage it from an early age. When a child sees another one doing something better, he instantly wants to top that. With this method we teach children that out there there's people with the same goals as them, so they need to work hard to achieve them.
By María Camila Montes
and Carlos Guerra, Step 10.
