A quick update that we at Friends Journal have extended the deadline for an upcoming issue on Friends and competition. It’s a really interesting topic and I’d like to see some more articles to choose from. In my “Editor’s Desk” post trying to drum up writing interest, I dug through the FJ archives to find previous discussions on the topic. I’ll excerpt a few here:
If you look back through Friends Journal archives, you’ll find warnings against competitive behavior. In 1955 Bess B. Lane of Swarthmore (Pa.) Meeting wrote that schools should “Place emphasis on cooperation, sharing, rather than on competition” and wondered if “competition is being overstressed in our schools.” In 1972, Christopher H. Anderson, then a senior at Wilmington College, had stronger words. He contrasted his Quaker education with public schools, which he said “breed a social conformity, an intellectual blandness and a repugnant spirit of competition.”
If you know anyone who is interested in the topic, please forward this along!