So it's a social problem. And it should be solved with telling kids this: Quote: " And we should ensure that the social climate at our children’s schools is one of warmth and trust, not competition and exclusion."
That'll work. sure.
Getting your papers graded above average is competition and with competition comes fierceness and willingness to learn and fight. How about a nice debate? Oh we can't because that would make two viewpoints compete against one another.
I think it's fairly well proven by now that praising children for, and reinforcing, hard work and persistence, has much better results than splitting them into smart and stupid.
One thing I wonder about, is how to avoid promoting useless work just for works sake. Like how many people say you should track accomplishments, not hours.
I think if making sure students felt safe was all that was necessary, the self-esteem movement of the '90s wouldn't be so harshly derided today. A possible alternative to making everyone felt non-competitive is to make the participants certain that the competition is egalitarian and fair, that everyone had equal opportunity to do well in it.
I actually don't believe it's about feeling safe. I think that humans themselves evolved out of necessity or vanish forever (a struggle). Also if you are born this way and have the guts to perfect and admit failure, you will eventually get something in return for your perseverance. I don't think that making anyone feel good about their mediocrity is a good way to settle any type of anxiety about ones being. It just delays the truth hitting them right in the face, for doing absolutely nothing.
Europe has its advantages and the US too. But what keeps startups from going to an island state where some of these problems aren't even in their dictionary?
