Cooperation is a must for kids

            In my opinion, cooperation is a lot better than competition because it creates an environment that everyone can participate in.  Not everyone is competitive, which if competition was better than cooperation those kids would not participate and eventually just give up and drop out of the course.  In gym class, cooperation games are a lot more popular because everyone can participate, making games fun for everyone.  If competitive games were the main focus in gym class, the kids that are naturally competitive would just dominate the activity leaving the kids who are not competitive feeling down on themselves because they could not compete with the others.  These kids would, in turn, eventually drop out of the course and not receive the necessary essentials of life that gym normally gives to kids.  Competition, in most cases, does decrease self esteem due to the fact that skill levels very and makes the less skilled kids to feel bad about themselves because they could not compete against the other kids.  For example, if we were to have a relay race around a track and every group had 3 aggressive, competitive people and one semi overweight, less competitive kid, the less competitive kid would bring down the chances of his team winning and in turn would make him feel incompetent and he would just feel horrible.  In the other hand, if the same group participated in a cooperation activity, such as guiding a blind folded person around an obstacle course, that semi overweight, less competitive kid would fit in.  Everyone would have to work together to guide the blind folded person around, everyone has different skills to bring to the table, so the kid might not be a very fast runner but he could be a very good speaker and would guide the blind guy around better than a person who could run a mile a minute.  In school there are team sports that to involve competition which most kids don’t play because they can’t compete at the level needed to make the team, which will hurt their self esteem.  But, in my opinion these sports are crucial in a school because it does allow those kids who are competitive a team to strive for.  I personally think that this type of competition should not be in a basic gym class because that is where you will face the problem of students dropping out due to the fact that they just cant compete against other students.