Devilyn's Essay: The Spirit Of Competition

First of all, Devilyn explains that competition causes issues in schools when it comes to contests and grades. In the article he explains, “For every state winner, there are thousands of participants in the local schools who have memorized lists of words in order to learn the lesson that education is really a mean-spirited process, that humilliation is the fruit of their effort, and that only one winner will celebrate a triumph whose satisfaction is measured by the suffering of others, not by any intrinsic worth of learning.” This is convincing because he is trying to explain that the purpose of competition that are demonstrated through learning academics tends to dishearten learners and eventually destroys the aspect of learning. Instead of focusing on the essence of learning, students are more worried about winning instead.

Second of all, Devilyn explains that the spirit of competition in sports is not ennobling, it is degrading. He uses convincing examples by talking about how athletes are pushed to the side during an injury because they are no longer useful to the team and that “in order become the temporary victors, athletes must specialize excessively, creating a narrowed lifestyle which stunts their development into mature human …show more content…
He explains, “the spirit of competition is a euphemistic mask for that particularly vicious phenomenon known as peer pressure.” It seems that when you grow up, you start to compare yourself to others, and that’s when it leads to competition. Deviled explains that it happens a lot throughout high school and I agree which makes it also seem convincing. I remember being an underclassman in high school and that having 10 or more friends is a big deal because you didn’t want others thinking you were lonely or there was something different about you. I also felt behind when it came to fashion trends. Always somebody was wearing the next style before you