Competition and Character
Connections: November 2002 -- At convocation, I reminded our students how competitive Hackley folk tend to be, and then orally capitalized it – COMPETITIVE. There is no doubt that Hackley students and coaches take athletics seriously. We work hard and want to win, but winning is not the most important thing. I was speaking to a senior recently about two games in which he had played. One was a close victory and the other was a close loss. He said that the close loss was more satisfying, had more meaning for him than the close victory. Anyone who has played, coached, or watched a game with empathy can guess reasons that might be so.
Connections: November 2002 -- At convocation, I reminded our students how competitive Hackley folk tend to be, and then orally capitalized it – COMPETITIVE. There is no doubt that Hackley students and coaches take athletics seriously. We work hard and want to win, but winning is not the most important thing. I was speaking to a senior recently about two games in which he had played. One was a close victory and the other was a close loss. He said that the close loss was more satisfying, had more meaning for him than the close victory. Anyone who has played, coached, or watched a game with empathy can guess reasons that might be so.
When I was living in London, I remember a conversation with English educators who were decrying competition as inevitably having corrosive effects. I disagreed. I said I thought competition was a tool, and, like any tool, could be misused. Used properly, though, competition could help students discover potential in themselves they would never have guessed or believed.
Sport is a classic venue for competition properly used. To me, wrestling is the purest example. Wrestling requires that one try his utmost, but within rules, within boundaries. To feel the directed intensity of the other is to know as well his restraint, as he will know yours. A bond can then develop between competitors, based not merely on respect for talent or effort, but on respect for restraint. It is the respect one instinctively feels for any display of true virtue.
Virtue is displayed when there is something meaningful at stake, something which one might want enough to break rules in order to get it. Competition is useful not only because it stimulates us to greater achievement, but also because it tempts us to violate restraint, to break rules. This will sound perverse to many. Shouldn’t we keep students from situations in which they will be tempted to break rules to get something they want? Moral action is clear precisely because it incurs disadvantage or foregoes illegitimate advantage. A right action that is to our advantage has no moral standing — it is at best morally neutral. If we want our children to grow in virtue, to educate them to the moral challenges of the real world, we will do them no favor by insulating them from choices with moral import. We need venues in which to test ourselves, to learn about virtue through our successes and our failures. Sports competition is thus an ideal educational venue for virtue. Because we want so much to win, the temptation to act without restraint, to break rules, can be great.
Sometimes that temptation affects parents as well as students. We need to be particularly careful to model the moral restraint we in turn expect from our students. Fortunately, at Hackley, we have many good models among parent spectators. It is easy to find Hackley parents notable both for being exceptionally competitive in spirit on behalf of their children, and for not letting that blind them to what is most important – the qualities of character. They cheer for other players on the Hackley team, not just their own child; they applaud other teams for good play, and other teams’ players when they are able to walk off the court or field after an injury. They thank the other teams and their spectators after a game, and show courtesy, as guests or hosts. You will not, I hope, see Hackley parents yelling at referees (even when they make bad calls – as they inevitably will), yelling at or distracting players from another team, or treating another team’s spectators with disrespect. Hackley parents will not coach or give instructions to their children during a game, any more than they would step into a teacher’s classroom and usurp the teacher’s role, nor would they, in a sport with individual play, such as tennis, squash, wrestling, or fencing, take their child home before the team as a whole has completed the match (supporting one’s teammates is the heart of being on a team).
As parents, teachers, and coaches, we must work together to help our children understand how to be competitive in sport, how to use competition to test and strengthen not only the body, but also the character. The world is full of moral challenges; we prepare them for the challenges of the future by helping them recognize and learn from the challenges of the present, challenges we all face every day — on the field or court, in the classroom, in our work and social lives together.
—Walter Johnson
Back
When I was living in London, I remember a conversation with English educators who were decrying competition as inevitably having corrosive effects. I disagreed. I said I thought competition was a tool, and, like any tool, could be misused. Used properly, though, competition could help students discover potential in themselves they would never have guessed or believed.
Sport is a classic venue for competition properly used. To me, wrestling is the purest example. Wrestling requires that one try his utmost, but within rules, within boundaries. To feel the directed intensity of the other is to know as well his restraint, as he will know yours. A bond can then develop between competitors, based not merely on respect for talent or effort, but on respect for restraint. It is the respect one instinctively feels for any display of true virtue.
Virtue is displayed when there is something meaningful at stake, something which one might want enough to break rules in order to get it. Competition is useful not only because it stimulates us to greater achievement, but also because it tempts us to violate restraint, to break rules. This will sound perverse to many. Shouldn’t we keep students from situations in which they will be tempted to break rules to get something they want? Moral action is clear precisely because it incurs disadvantage or foregoes illegitimate advantage. A right action that is to our advantage has no moral standing — it is at best morally neutral. If we want our children to grow in virtue, to educate them to the moral challenges of the real world, we will do them no favor by insulating them from choices with moral import. We need venues in which to test ourselves, to learn about virtue through our successes and our failures. Sports competition is thus an ideal educational venue for virtue. Because we want so much to win, the temptation to act without restraint, to break rules, can be great.
Sometimes that temptation affects parents as well as students. We need to be particularly careful to model the moral restraint we in turn expect from our students. Fortunately, at Hackley, we have many good models among parent spectators. It is easy to find Hackley parents notable both for being exceptionally competitive in spirit on behalf of their children, and for not letting that blind them to what is most important – the qualities of character. They cheer for other players on the Hackley team, not just their own child; they applaud other teams for good play, and other teams’ players when they are able to walk off the court or field after an injury. They thank the other teams and their spectators after a game, and show courtesy, as guests or hosts. You will not, I hope, see Hackley parents yelling at referees (even when they make bad calls – as they inevitably will), yelling at or distracting players from another team, or treating another team’s spectators with disrespect. Hackley parents will not coach or give instructions to their children during a game, any more than they would step into a teacher’s classroom and usurp the teacher’s role, nor would they, in a sport with individual play, such as tennis, squash, wrestling, or fencing, take their child home before the team as a whole has completed the match (supporting one’s teammates is the heart of being on a team).
As parents, teachers, and coaches, we must work together to help our children understand how to be competitive in sport, how to use competition to test and strengthen not only the body, but also the character. The world is full of moral challenges; we prepare them for the challenges of the future by helping them recognize and learn from the challenges of the present, challenges we all face every day — on the field or court, in the classroom, in our work and social lives together.
—Walter Johnson
Hackley School
© Hackley School | Privacy Policy & Terms of Use & Nondiscrimination Hackley School is a registered 501(3)c
