Prompt: Some people think that a sense of competition in children should be encouraged. Others believe that children who are taught to co-operate rather than compete become more useful adults. Ċ Discuss both these views and give your own opinion. Ċ Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Competition and co-operation are two distinct personality traits of human beings. The issue of whether we should encourage children to compete or co-operate with each other is certainly a contentious one. While there are arguments in favour of both, I believe that children should be taught to indulge in healthy competition while co-operating with others. Ċ Being competitive is natural to children; however, encouraging just a competitive spirit may cause them to not be empathetic towards their peers. For example, children participating in a race would not show empathy towards the one who has fallen down, if they solely focus on the competition. This is not a good trait for a person; therefore, the children should be taught to compete in a healthy way, so that the negative effects of the spirit of competitiveness can be eased-off. Ċ Co-operation, on the other hand, teaches children to be team players. Besides, this is an essential requirement for adults to successfully work in diverse work settings. Moreover, learning to co-operate also enables them to be patient and empathetic towards others. For instance, children who learn to co-operate and work together with their classmates in school learn to be co-operative at their workplace when they grow up. Thus, co-operation is an important quality that needs nurturing from a young age in order to be a respectful adult. Ċ In conclusion, based on the above discourse, it can be concluded that although competitiveness is necessary, children should be educated about being co-operative so that they develop a habit of participating in healthy competitions. Therefore, in my opinion, the spirit of competitiveness in children should be balanced with the quality of co-operation.