What is the cause of violence in society today? This is a question that has vexed ministers, scientists and theologians for years, and has produced some interesting answers. The lack of National Service, a decline in moral values, abolition of corporal punishment, the rise of single parent families, Hollywood trends. All have been suggested as caused, and each has it's merits.
But now a new Government-backed booklet, entitled Towards A Non-violent Society, has lain the blame squarely at the door of Musical Chairs. Yes, the party game.
It would seem that a group of charities formed after the James Bulger murder have concluded that violence in children can be linked to the teaching of strongly competitive games. As such, it is recommending that schools do not use the game, lest we breed a generation of maniacs (okay, that last bit isn't in there, but it might as well have been!).
They say that in Musical Chairs, the strongest and biggest children always win, and thus shows that violence is a favourable trait.
I don't know what rules are being used today, but I seem to remember it was always the quickest or sneakiest children that won, not the big lumbering farmers' sons I played it with.
What concerns me more is that we are seeing a gradual removal of all competitiveness in schools, it being replaced with the ethos of 'everyone can win'. And I'm afraid this just isn't true.
In the big real world of adults, full of careers, bosses, love, sex and money (sometimes all rolled into one convenient package!), there are clearly winners and losers. Just look at your own friends and colleagues. Are there not some of these that are better and more successful than others, yourself included?
It's An Outrage!!
What we need to teach children is that competition is a natural part of life and should be embraced. We need to help them find their own particular field of success, and then support them in it. Not everyone will be a sprinter, or a mathematician, or a solicitor or a jet pilot, but we will all be something. Ad we need to be the best we can at it.
Look at America, where the divide between success and failure is more pronounced than it ever will be here, and what are they concerned with? Winning.
If we remove the concept of winning and losing from children's early development, they are going to have a hell of a tough time coping with it when it jumps up and bites them on the ass for the first time. Plus, we'll all still be crap at sports that we invented.
Musical Chairs has as much to do with breeding a violent society as doing exams - leave it be.
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