How are we even able to compete with our friends?

Despite teachers often discouraging it and even some students feeling uncomfortable with the notion, at RCDS a lot of people share grades. 

While there are varying answers about how often people discuss how they did on assignments and assessments, there were only three people that said that they NEVER indulge that information. However, from that 56 students, many would like the discussion of grades to be more taboo. 

An RCDS student said that grades are viewed as “impersonal” and everyone makes it their business. “It has become common to expect people’s scores. Sometimes people feel the need to share their grades, even if they don’t want to, because if they don’t then people may assume they did bad.” Maybe at a school like RCDS this is one of the worst feelings? A student feeling like other students believe they did poorly on an assignment or assessment, and that fuels their need to prove themselves. Perhaps this feeling also ties into the whole pressure to start over-achieving in school and to compete to be doing as well or better than your peers. Students do not like the feeling of failure or not doing enough that they start doing too much.

In another survey question, 51 out of the 56 students said that they find themselves comparing their grades to their friends’ grades often. The remaining five students said that they do at times compare their grades but rarely. Not a single RCDS student responded saying they never share grades. Students at RCDS are all guilty at one point or another of comparing abilities and scores to those around them. Especially their friends. 

Is Competitiveness a Positive Thing?

For many students, competition can drive them to be their very best and without that type of push they feel like they might fall behind. Competition can be healthy and a positive aspect of life. For others, competition just becomes too consuming and pushes them towards an unhealthy way of life.  

Out of this poll, only a very small number of students believe that the competition at RCDS does not have an impact on mental health, or more specifically their OWN mental health. As students at a school that promotes positive mental health, an alarming amount of people believe that this competitive environment impacts students’ emotional well-being at least somewhat. 

Perhaps even more interestingly, the very same group of people answered the question about liking competition and whether it has a positive impact on grades in school very differently. 25 of the 56 people said competition pushes them to do better, and 27 people said it was a mix of both. Only three people said that it pushes them to do worse. As for liking competition, the results were also skewed. Fifty percent of people do not like competition for either mental health reasons or the stress it induces. But the other 50 percent of people do not mind competition or actually find it helpful. Why is this the case? At RCDS do students seem to actually like things that are detrimental to their mental health or create too much stress because it forces them to do better? Do students care more about grades and doing better than their peers than about their own well being?

Advocating for change

While over fourty percent of the survey takers are fine with the way competition is right now, the majority would like some change. But how can a system that is so deeply rooted into the brains and daily functionings of students be fixed?