By JIM NICHOLS

A quote from a verbal and precocious nine-year-old girl: “You think boys are nice, but then when you do something that’s a competition, they get stupid.”

It happened again just the other day. I was stopped at a red light next to another stopped car. When the light turned green, the other car took off rapidly and loudly. I could almost hear the gasoline pouring through its engine fuel injectors. As I approached the next stoplight, the other car was waiting for me. Now we were both stopped together again. With the green light, the other car took off and hurried to the next red light, where it waited for me. Why do people do that? Is this a competition?

In conversation recently with a mature, professional person, he was relating to me that he was not a good student during his early years. He said he was particularly bad at math. In retrospect, he said he believed it was that he tried to do the problems too quickly and was not careful enough; he just wanted to get finished. He also described reading problems that involved trying to go too quickly.

That got me thinking about how many instances of my own (especially) elementary years were spent trying to do class activities so rapidly that I could claim to be the winner. Since I was often successful at this, I was rewarded. I never gave a thought to the others in the class who never were the winner.

My mother might have been trying to head that off. Before I, myself, could read well, we spent many evenings with her reading the Aesop tale of the Tortoise and the Hare. In that story, there is a race that will clearly be won by the fast-running hare. Because of the hare’s inattention and tendency to get distracted, however, it was passed by the tortoise who was plugging along. Mother tried to make clear that the fastest does not always win. 

I suspect that most, if not all, of us were reared in an achievement-oriented environment. Our lives subtly consumed that the primary reason for doing something was so that one might win. There was an inherent competition of life that we learned early on. In fact, we soon sensed that much of modern American society was based on competition, not only academically but financially, socially, and in every other way.

But, you say, competition is the needed spur to learn, invent, grow, become proficient. That is clearly true and many of our professional qualities were developed because we were learning in a competitive world. To say only that, however, is to ignore the negative effects that are clearly around us. We can easily see, for instance, how competition in politics, government, and business leads to cheating and lying. On small and large scales in every area we see how desperate some are to be the “winner,” whatever the endeavor.

Competition too often necessitates a winner and a loser, not just progress and growth. In a world of total winners and losers, everybody ends up as a loser.

I saw a fascinating interview by a world champion gymnast. She was at the top of her sport. With a wistful eye, she said, “But there is always someone right behind you who is younger, stronger, and more skilled.” She could see into her future as a competitor.

As an educator, I have serious thoughts as to whether competition has a more positive or negative effect on learning. I might have made some serious mistakes on my side of the teaching lectern.

Author Brian McClaren speaks of our “framing story.” If our framing story as a society or personally is based on speed, competition, and consumption, we are destined for disappointment. We must have a different framing story as children of God with responsibilities for common care and peace between us.

This story features mutual respect and seeking win-win situations rather than win-lose. The clearest scripture dealing with competition is Romans 12:10 where Paul writes: “. . . outdo one another in showing honor.” That is how we are to compete with one another. 

Jim Nichols is a retired Abilene Christian University biology professor and current hospice chaplain