We believe Competition Belongs on the Sporting Field
Have you heard any or all of the following?
- That Carinya does not believe in playing competitive sport, or
- If we do, it is inconsistent with our policy of rejecting competition in the classroom, or
- When we play sport, Carinya does not train teams to really ?compete?, or
- Carinya does not take sport ?seriously? because we do not publicly recognise students for sporting success.
Our approach to sport is one of the most common misunderstandings about Carinya, so let’s break it down in more detail.
1. Do we play competitive sport? Carinya currently has many sporting teams playing every week, so we definitely do play competitive sport. This is as well as all the representative teams we send away in football, netball, athletics, swimming, cross country, hockey and touch football.
2. Isn’t competitive sport inconsistent with the policy of rejecting competition in the classroom? No, it is not inconsistent: in fact it is a great illustration of the validity of that policy.
Competition in the classroom:
- Competition is not natural or intrinsic to learning in the classroom. A child can learn to read, write and count without having to compete with other children and ‘beat’ them.
- Using competition to motivate children trivialises them as people and as learners. It basically assumes children will not want to learn unless they get something for it. That is wrong, as we prove every day at Carinya!
- Going to school is compulsory: using competition to motivate children in the classroom means most children are forced to be seen, by others, and themselves, as ‘losers’. There can only ever be one ‘winner’. That is neither kind nor fair.
- It does not matter who is the best in the class in reading, maths, spelling etc.
- Using competition to motivate children in the classroom tells the ‘losers’ that the school values the learning of smart children more than the learning of all.
Competition in sport:
- Competition is intrinsic to sport as an activity. It is part of the definition of sport as an activity, even if you only ‘compete’ against yourself.
- Nearly every sport is based around the idea of competing for the ball, jumping higher, running faster, throwing further, etc. People of all ages choose to take part in such activities because they enjoy being in a team, learning skills and exercising.
- Most competitive sport is a voluntary activity and participants (including children after a certain age) know there will be ‘winners’ and ‘losers’. No one is forced to take part and they can stop playing at any time. Most sport takes place with a level playing field. If teams are not evenly matched, it is not an enjoyable activity and teams are usually re-graded.
3. Do we train Carinya sports teams to ‘really compete’? - Yes we do, using all the available resources of coaches and facilities that we can. We have so many sporting teams that we have to rely on volunteer parents to help coach teams. Their skills in coaching will vary but our experience is that even if teams initially struggle, over time they accumulate skills and do well. Many of our teams in sports (and in every other possible school based activity) regularly make finals and grand finals, both locally and in wider competitions on a bigger stage, and we sometimes win in competitions against much bigger schools. Our teams are actually sometimes criticised for being ‘too competitive’ (some say the result of not having competition in the classroom!).
4. Does Carinya take sport seriously? Why not publicly recognise individual sporting achievements?
- No team we play in any sport ever makes the observation that we are not serious about sport. They know we are ?serious?.
- We do not think it is necessary (or wise) to single out individuals in a team (best and fairest) or to the school community (name and photo in School Chat or Magazine) as if being good at sport is more important than any other skill or ability a person might have. We receive all of our skills and abilities as gracious gifts from the Lord Jesus. We do not ‘deserve’ any recognition or prize simply because we have those abilities. They are a gift: we enjoy the gift and share the gift with others in the team!
- Carinya seeks to give every student as much opportunity to play sport as they would like.
- Every team is trained to do as well as it can at whatever level.
And best of all: children do not need prizes or recognition for success in sport. They usually just delight and find joy in the opportunity sport provides.
Finally, teaching our children to be faithful and to seek the reward in the task in the classroom and on the sporting field is a God honouring way of helping them to enjoy their God given abilities to the full. In sport at Carinya we try to teach our children at any age to ‘leave it all on the field’, try your hardest and feel the pleasure of God as you use and enjoy the abilities He has given you.