When we grow up from childhood, we remember only what was different and beautiful. Luckily, time erases or brightens up any bad memories.
Do you remember the math competition you participated in in the third grade of elementary school? You remember, of course, because it mattered, because you were special at the time, because you might have beaten others, and you remember most of all because, on that occasion, you beat yourself.
Participation in competitions, festivals and competitions in any field and at any level has a far-reaching positive impact on the cognitive, emotional, social and physical development of children.
By preparing for the competition, students acquire the habit of investing extra effort, increasing their previous capacities for learning or practicing an activity, develop attention, concentration and will, learn to better connect facts, understand what they have read more deeply and finally become someone who knows and can do something more than others at such a “young age.”
By going out to the competition itself, the children practice making a test, which is very different from regular school checks. They learn to overcome stage fright, if the competition involves performance. They learn to fight in a team, to connect and cooperate, if the competition is of a team nature. For the first time, students are also introduced to the external assessment of knowledge.
In order for competitions to bring the benefits that they can undoubtedly bring, it is necessary to introduce students to the “world” of competitions at the very beginning of schooling, while the school is still colored by the game. It is the teacher’s task to discover the children’s talents, and then gradually, carefully and without pressure, to develop in them the desire to work harder, to direct, support and encourage them, for as long as necessary.
How do they affect a student’s personal and professional success?
Getting out of the everyday framework of activities, acquiring new, often more interesting knowledge that is not known to other peers, individual work with a teacher-mentor, a more objective examination of knowledge, the seriousness of the entire organization that accompanies each competition, all this affects the self-confidence of students during this process to grow, day by day, even regardless of the outcome of the competition. A win is a place in the competition, but a victory is also an experience of failure! It is this experience of “failure” that fundamentally strengthens character, gives mental strength and matures our competitors faster and more naturally for some future fights. In this process, we adults, teachers and parents also have another important role. We are the ones who should explain to the brave children-competitors that, when it happens, the experience of “failure” is precious, but also that the path to the goal, not the goal itself, is what enriches them and encourages them to be better today than they were yesterday.
The knowledge and skills that the students acquired then, in childhood, through the struggle that tempered their character, remain forever their advantages. And as the years go by, our competitors will shine more and more, they will become capable people, those who can do anything, just because a long time ago, when everything was still colored by the game, they learned to make an effort, and then to win!
