powerful advocate of developing self-awareness. Two of his quotes point to the folly of strict conformity to tradition and the practice of religion. He noted, perhaps a little too harshly that "tradition becomes our security, and when the mind is secure it is in decay". But the point he is trying to make is that this feeling of security can impair the thought process that could otherwise conjure up a better vision for the future. He also aptly pointed out that "it is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society." The history of civilization is littered with the diabolic and wickedly discriminatory practices of the past generations in the name of religion and tradition, but a lot of thesehave been thankfully discarded by most right-thinking people over time. Competition is another matterthat has been widely discussed, but has continued to challenge educators as it pertains to institutions of learning. We have seen strong and opposing views on the merits of competition, but it is a farcical debate. There is no question that a competitive mind seeks a better and higher level of achievement in any particular field, be it learning, sports or business. But the role of competition in developing personality unfortunately continues to be exaggerated by our larger society. In the strictest sense of the word, competition conjures up the image of a battle to outsmart your opponent. It is only a relative measure of success, and winning by itself does not reflect true achievement. Participation should be the key, and contests should be structured to identify and recognize what kids tend to do best. We are all guilty to some extent of crowd thinking, and unfortunately there is a tendency for us to go along or conform to our cultural kin in most matters. Ironically, competition can breed conformity to certain pre-conceived standards and notions of achievement and prevent the kind of outside-the-box thinking that leads to innovation. However, parental attitudes have evolved, and there is aslow but deliberate trend in India away from the ranking system in schools. Such measures of academic prowess do not adequately consider the creativity and other personality skills of children, such as a positive attitude, maturity and leadership that contribute a lot more to success in life. The preparation and the efforts put in by the children to exercise their logical thinking and creative faculties at different venues contribute to their overall development, not the act of winning. I would
like to use the analogy of the game of golf. The very nature and format of the game can help develop some incredibly useful values of healthy competition in the younger generation, quite unlike other more physical sports activities. It is a unique sport in the sense that your performance is a pure measure of your skills and discipline, and in no way impeded or influenced by other participants. Each player strives to achieve their personal best when pitched against the natural elements, and let the chips fall where they may. Thus competition should be with oneself, to seek to advance and make a unique contribution in your chosen field. I believe that kids from the Indian diaspora generally tend to do well in education and careers mostly due to the superlative parenting efforts that emphasize hard work and application. To borrow from the field of game theory, a zero-sum game is one in which there is a winner and a loser. However, the progress of civilization has only come about with nonzero sum games that lead to win-win situations. Robert Wright discusses this process of cultural evolution in a fascinating thesis titled "Non Zero". Conflicts are zero-sum competitions that have historically resulted in senseless acts of emotional and physical violence, and a general stalling or even reversal of progress. The wrong kind of competition, without concern for the consequences to the lives of other fellow members of society can cause varying degrees of disharmony leading to conflict. Also, when people try to conform to some of the irrational tenets of any particular social communion and internalize these beliefs, they can display uncontrolled passions and intolerance of alternate viewpoints. Thankfully, there are enough examples of how societies and cultures have evolved over time and managed to temper their practices, and be more accommodative and understanding of each other's belief systems. This kind of cooperative behavior developed over time through a process of reciprocity, learning from generations of repeated interactions among peoples, and we can be confident in our collective wisdom to mold the new generation to absorb and continue to promote some of the betteraspects of our cultural heritage, while eschewing some of the insidious vestiges of the past. As the well-known poet and thinker, Kahlil Gibran has written, “Yesterday is but today’s memory, and tomorrow is today’s dream.” Kerala Association of Greater Washington
17