Uproar, I halfly agree with you.
In school at Sports Day, we are taught in England that it does not matter if you win or lose, it's the taking part and enjoying yourself with friends that matters.
Again another moral gone totally wrong, using my example above, how can anyone achieve anything if all they care about is having fun. Life is a competition, you either come out the winner, or your a loser like everyone else. These kids will have the biggest reality shock of there life when they leave school.
Kids should always be taught to try hard, but they should also be taught how to enjoy what they are doing.
Let's look at little league. Children are taught to have fun rather than to win. Many little league coaches don't even keep score. The kids play merely to have fun. They are taught sportsmanship. But what about working hard? Are they learning how to give it their best when there is no reward? For a little kid, they simply want to win for self gratification. Older kids find motivation in their friends and family.
Life is a competition, you either come out the winner, or your a loser like everyone else.
Competition is for business, but friendship and relationships often work off neutrality. You can be the smartest guy around, or the strongest, but to make friends you have to be fun, which is why so many morons have so many friends. Yes, they tend to fail when it comes to careers, but those who can balance being fun, smart, and strong are able to remain happy while thriving in their career.
Let me go back to little league. Children are taught to have fun and to not worry about winning, however, the kids who tend to play the most are those who try the hardest and in some cases the better players. If a coach focuses purely on having fun rather than winning, and fails to reward the kids who put forth an effort (i.e. letting them play more), then the children don't learn very much.
Let's now take a look at the classroom. Children should not be taught to never trust everyone else. They should not be taught to only have a few friends. Children should learn to be courteous to each other while also remaining competitive.
The reason children should not be forced or strongly pushed to become friends with everyone they know is because it is a lesson in life to learn who you can and can not trust. There is no better way to learn than to actually experience these issues. These children may have problems learning how to debate or how to be aggressive when necessary. This, I do agree with you.
Now a rant on uniforms... because too many parents and other adults are ignorant over protective gits. I hate people who want to force public schools to uphold a uniform dress code. If everyone dresses similarly, it is said that nobody will be judged on the type of clothes they wear, or what their class in society is. I honestly have to agree. I think uniforms do help children get along better. I went to a private school up until 9th grade, and there seemed to be little conflict with classmates about such trivial matters.
However, I went to a public high school and I learned the hard way how much people judge you on what you wear, on how your hair is cut, on how you act, and so much more. I may have been shielded as a child, but as a teen I was paying the price. Of course, I learned to accept being judged. Now you have parents who want to put uniforms on teenagers. This will do nothing but harm them as adults. Not only that, but your teenage years are YOUR years to express yourself. We try to give young children time to play, we need to give teens time to be freaks, or time to be snobby mother fuckers, or to be the mature for their age.
In the end, things smoothed out. However, the transition from being overly protected to out on my own two feet were much more difficult than they needed to be.
