The Winner Takes It All

I’m not very good at being competitive, because if I get to win, then someone else has to lose, and I always feel bad for the losers. Plus I don’t see life as being about a race to the top. I find it much more interesting to meet people who are different, than to meet people who say they are the best. I’m not saying that other people shouldn’t be competitive, if that’s what floats their boats. But if anyone wants to turn anything into a competition, then please excuse me if I decline to join in. Education is going through a competitive time at the moment: there is huge pressure to do well in league tables – to win the ‘best school’ competition. There is an assumption that being competitive is automatically a good thing. But remember: if you want your school to be at the top of a table, you must accept that another school will be at the bottom. And the truth of the matter is, I’ve never ‘chosen’ a school based on a league table. I can’t. Because you know that notion of ‘parental choice’? Well, that is the biggest myth of all. Like most kids, mine go to their local school, which is exactly as it should be. Unlike in a city, there is no transport to take them elsewhere, even if I wanted to ‘choose’. Education is not a race, it is an entitlement and a public service. And I don’t want the winner to take it all, if that risks the losers standing small.