Essay on The Unhealthy Focus on Competition in Universities
The first thing I do when I wake up in the morning is secure my knapsack, ensuring that my rations
are in their proper place: my biology textbook, notebook, and iclicker2. Then, I begin my long
march into enemy territory. My blitzkrieg strategy will help me win this war. My ground attack is
relentless (hand cramping but pen scribbling down the highlights of the facts about a prokaryotic
cell's genome). My aerial assaults, though few, are aggressive and well timed (Dr. Newman,
question, if we remove the repressor gene, will the lac operon...). And all the while, I cleverly evade
the snipers, positioned strategically by the enemy in the back of the room. They fire at me with
deadly accuracy (iclickers ready to answer the lecture ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
Every facet of our life revolves around our seemingly insatiable appetite for competition. We teach
our children (as we were convinced long ago) that their peers are not resources and friends to learn
from, but enemies to overcome, to beat. We grow up, convinced that self worth is dependent on our
record of triumphs. We apply to colleges, happy when our top choice school accepts us but elated
when the same isn't true for our neighbors. Even applicants who are not competing for positions
against each other compete. Imagine your Pitt acceptance letter juxtaposed with a friend's – no,
competitor's – Ivy League letter. (You lost this round.) We work for businesses, which compete for
the majority share of the widget market. As employees, we compete for bonuses, promotions,
vacation time, etc. (Lets not forget the cheery "Employee of the Month" Award, given only to the
most friendly and courteous of all staff. Now even social interactions are competitive.) For fun, we
play games that strictly mandate a winner and a loser. We recite the tired, worn–out mantra:
competition builds character, which only serves to fulfill our desire to categorize each other.
Nothing can escape our gluttonous lust for external validation. Want to go out with friends? Who
can drink the most shots? Having luncheon with Doris and Eugene? Whose grandchildren are more
successful? Going to class? Who was smart enough to get question 45 right on the last exam? Even
sibling rivalry,
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