Healthy Competition

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Healthy Competition

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From very early on, in the youngest children, you see them naturally compete. They compete to be the first in line. They compete to be the first child to get milk and cookies. They compete to be the first kid to build the tallest building with the blocks in the classroom. And then over time the competition becomes more refined and more select. Competition becomes unhealthy when we put too much store on winning and not on the value of learning how to compete. We can't take competition out of children's lives. It's there naturally, and it's a part of them understanding where they fit in the scheme of things. But when parents encourage children to only come in at the top, to only be the winner, to only be the child that gets it right, to only be the kid that gets straight As, they're losing out on half the important lessons in life. How do you pick yourselves up when you're not first? When you didn't get the A? When you didn't win the contest? When you didn't get the part you wanted in the play? And carry on and work hard to get it the next time? So parents need to remember that you're not striving for perfection at any point in your child's life, because if you are, you're setting them up for the biggest failure they'll ever experience. They've got to understand the rightful place of competition in their lives, and not be so vulnerable to not always winning or coming in at the top.

See Reveta Bowers's video on Healthy Competition...

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Reveta Bowers

Head of School

Now starting her forty-second year, Reveta Bowers is the Head of School at The Center for Early Education, an urban pre-school through 6th grade Los Angeles independent school with 538 students. Devoted to children and education, Ms. Bowers served and has served on a number of boards. She is currently on Board of Overseers of the UCLA Healthcare System, on the founding board of the African American Board Leadership Institute and the board of the FEDCO Charitable Foundation. She just completed serving as Chair Emeritus of the Board of Directors of the California Community Foundation. A past president and former secretary of The Educational Records Bureau Board, Reveta Bowers was also a member of the Advisory Board to the Klingenstein Center at Teacher’s College for ten years. She served as an outside director on the Board of Directors of the Walt Disney Company for ten years and is a former member of the Harvard-Westlake, Brentwood and Windward School boards. Reveta was on the Council for Spiritual and Ethical Education board, and the boards of the National Association of Principals of Schools for Girls and the Country Day Headmaster’s Association. She served as a trustee and treasurer of the NAIS Board, and as past president of the California Association of Independent Schools. For the past thirteen years she has also been on the faculty of the NAIS Institute for New Heads where she serves as the Lead Faculty member. One of her proudest career moments was receiving the NAIS Diversity Leadership Award in 2009. She has had a long and rewarding career in independent schools and finds her work with organizations supporting education, students, parents, community and Board work to be continually inspiring.

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