"Humanity is taking its final examination. We have come to an extraordinary moment when it doesn't have to be you or me. There is enough for all. We need not operate competitively any longer. If we succeed, it will be because of youth, truth and love."
-Buckminster Fulller
Buckminster was a teacher and now I am a teacher. I work in a system of schools that uses competition as its vehicle. If your only goal is to find out who is the best, then this system seems to make sense. But if you value something else then it would make sense to call this system into question.
Many feel that our education system is broken, or at least pretty far off track. Yet we often hear a cry to increase accountability. The way we do that, we are told, is more testing and more competition. Creating competition between students, between teachers, between schools, between districts, and even between states.
What if we stepped back for a minute and asked a different question. What if our schools were based on cooperation rather than competition? What if students had to work together to answer complex problems and not race to win a standardized exam?
The geese fly faster and farther working together to form their “V”. The fish find safety working together as a school. Evolution welcomes efficiency.
Buckminster proved over and over again that the Earth can and will provide. Man must cooperate in order to share in it, but we must also provide for the needs of others. Hungry students don’t learn well. Students that are not safe or are alone can’t focus. Students consumed with chasing material gains or accolades don’t aspire to new challenges. By meeting the needs of those around us we all move forward together. Schools can and should be teaching that, not competing for funding.
