“Instead of changing the rules to limit excellence, what if our knee-jerk reaction to excellence, merit, and achievement was to exhibit more excellence, show greater levels of merit, and accelerate achievement? This would be a notable difference from our status quo where we root for the underdog but sabotage the underdog’s success. Because when we look at the odds that must be overcome for a Simone Biles to become a legendary gymnast or for a Rich Paul to become a successful sports agent, their degree of difficulty is already at its maximum. So here’s hoping we can exchange this unfortunate status quo for a new rule: ‘If you can’t beat them, do better.’”—Colin Seale1
“If you can’t beat them, do better.” When did this attitude fade from our mindset. I discuss this question quite frequently. (My friend Sandi shared this article with me this morning, and I had a very similar conversation with my cousin, an educator, just yesterday.) “Helicopter” parenting has morphed into “lawnmower” parenting. It has been shaped by “everybody gets a trophy” and passing kids along through the school system whether they have mastered the material or not. It is a common complaint that school policies permit student repeating exams and turning in late assignments/repeating assignments until they “succeed.” My cousin (the teacher) is frustrated by the growth (i.e., addition of assistance) of IEPs (Individual Education Plans) as students “progress” through the system. We should be raising the bar for our children lot building a stairway to the bar. The same in sports—and in life. We should be helping them early on and be progressively allowing them (encouraging/expecting and even forcing them) to do more for themselves as time goes on.
It used to be the American way: “If you can’t beat them, do better.” Now….
“We are all born with and equal opportunity to be unequal.”—Dan Gable
Now, we find it unjust for someone to perform better than us. Now, we limit success for the sake of others, and that accomplishes little.
Recently, the International Association of Athletics Federation changed the rules for women in sports to limit the success of women, such as Semenya Caster, who have disorders of sexual development and possess the male XY chromosome pattern—having testosterone in the “male range.” She is not taking performance enhancing drugs. She was merely born with a superior performance capacity.
Athletic performance has long been playing under the rules of natural selection. Are we to limit athletes who are naturally gifted because those of us who failed to choose our parents wisely can’t accept that we are not going to win of our own efforts? Do we not have “the next level” in sports of all kinds? If we can’t stand at the top of the Olympic platform (or any platform of victory in life), what is wrong with celebrating greatness and striving to “do better”?
I have a somewhat unpopular view in education that we should challenge our student—that it is more important to have them see where they can “do better” rather than have them “succeed” on exams that measure what they “know” rather than what they “don’t know.” I like hard exams that require a curve rather than exams in which there is “bell-curve” centered in the B-range (or higher). I learned more in my Structural Geology course in my undergraduate degree in which a had a 57 average (which was a solid B) and my graduate Anatomy courses in which I missed the majority of Dr. Morris’s questions in our weekly oral exams. (By the way, I aced my final oral comprehensive in Anatomy for my doctoral degree because I learned anatomy rather than memorizing the content—I got better.)
Life should not be about everyone winning or succeeding. It should not penalize those who more successful than others. Life is about opportunity and doing the best we can with what we are given. The rules should limit no one’s opportunity to be “unequal.”
1 https://www.forbes.com/sites/colinseale/2019/10/08/if-you-cant-beat-them-change-the-rules-the-biles-and-unfair-barriers-for-excellence-in-america/?sh=61f883de160b&fbclid=IwAR2GfSZggPq_qUeTEf6zD_X-hv7XuYPHTsa80CUBNjBntRQS2guradwHQ20