Teachers and educational researchers can easily get into a situation that calls for evaluation, for grading. Personally, I prefer education arrangements where the requirements are quite clear, where there is one "grade" and everybody gets it. Society, or parts of it, sometimes rebels against such arrangements, on the grounds that
Not everyone can be good, or
"We want to know if our kid is among the best", or
It simply could not be correct that all the kids met the standard.
Sometimes, innate competition surges and one student or another wants to know personally and directly if he is the best speller or story teller.
When we are talking about knowledge, education and personal development, we move beyond artificial goal posts and points for this and that. Even just specifying what a 5th grader or a college sophomore ought to be required to do or demonstrate for an "ok" is arbitrary. Requirements differ from teacher to teacher and sometimes from one semester to the next according to the same teacher.
Contests and competitions can definitely be of value. Effort and inspiration can reach higher levels when trying to outdo others or win a bet. Horatio Nelson Jackson was rather wealthy and he certainly didn't really need an additional $50 when he took the bet and drove from San Francisco to New York on the first cross-country auto drive in 1903.
But it makes sense to take a moment every now and then and face the fact that everything is unique. Comparisons are always simplifications. Each of us, each day, each pencil and each mouthful is unique. No other, before or since, is the same. You can say we are all winners or you can say we are all losers. You can say that the distance to the goal is arbitrary and the length of my legs was a hampering factor. You can imagine how much better I would have done if the match was half as long or twice as long. OK, Podunk U. is not a school that people are clamoring to get into but that is what makes it a great choice. Earth is only a little planet in an ordinary solar system but it is OUR little planet.
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