Categories: OpinionWomen Empowerment

Opinion: Someone Will Always Be Better

The story was in the news a while ago and it did cause a lot of scare for people, especially parents. The story revolved around a teenage boy who filled the bottle of a classmate with acid because she came ahead of him in major subjects after their examination scripts were revealed.

As the story was told, this boy got transferred from another school to a new school and after the outcome of a term’s examination was revealed, he wasn’t first in position in most of the important subjects. A girl came out tops and he got angry or probably jealous. As the story went, he was the best student in his former school but he wasn’t the best in the new school.

During break time one day, he took the water bottle of the best student, emptied its original content and refilled the plastic with acidic solutions from the laboratory. Thankfully, another student saw him and reported the case to the higher authorities of the school. We can only guess what could have happened, had the owner of the bottle drank the content unknowingly.

What would make a teenager think of such maliciousness, we might want to pause and ask?

A whole lot of the time, some authority figures in the lives of youngsters, push them, unconsciously to always be the best even at the detriment of others. By what they say and how they act, they make winning a ‘do or die’ affair.’

When kids are taught that they are a failure when they are not ahead of every other person, they can become malicious and think that the other person ahead of them is a rival that needs to be eliminated.

When parents talk maliciously about their colleagues and friends and scheme on how to always acquire things to outshine someone else, they invariably teach kids, to do the same.

The outcome of how children act and behave is imbibed from what they see rather than what are told to do.

Children must be taught to always strive against their last best self and not see others who are better than them as automatic enemies.

Much more, they must be taught the value of relationships and rejoicing with others in their winning seasons because someone will always be better in one area or live or another.

Photo Credit: istockphotos

OLUWABUSAYO MADARIOLA

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Busayo Madariola

Please make welcome, the latest writer to the ‘Eko Hot Blog’ family, OluwabusayoMadariola! Busayo, whose articles would be featured every Friday, is a trainer, writer and published author. Her work experiences span the field of banking, teaching and business consulting. She would be bringing her wealth of experience to our readers through her weekly contributions which would be centered mainly on female gender empowerment.