Learning that it’s okay to be wrong is very important. Losing is not the same thing, and only becomes an issue when we assume that something is a competition.
And assuming that things are a competition is what causes people to be afraid to be wrong. Because they think being wrong makes them a loser. This assumption is built into education, and it’s why education fails so many people.
I agree they aren't the same thing. But I think both learning to lose and learning to be wrong are equally important in life. Everything isn't a competition. So we shouldn't assume all things are or approach all things like they are. But some things, like many sports, are a competition. And sports isn't about being right or wrong, it is about performance. In a competitive sport you are going to have winners and losers. And losing isn't the end of the world. Nor is it something that should define a person. These are important lessons in sportsmanship that competitive sports can teach you. Losing also presents an opportunity to learn and improve, because it can reveal your weaknesses. Just as an example here, if you and I sit down to a game of chess, and I lose, I could fly off the handle, flip over the board and lock myself in a room with a bottle of bourbon. That would be an extreme overreaction though, and unfortunately people sometimes never learn how to deal with the emotions of losing and overreact when they do. On the other hand, if I am wise, I understand that maybe I lost because you are more skilled at chess than me, and I can learn from the experience of being beaten by you. I should also realize that not only am I not defined by the fact that I lost a chess match to you, but that how I conducted myself over that loss says much more about my character than the fact that I lost. I do think this lesson can be extended to life, in that it helps people to content with failure when they encounter it.
Also I think there is something to be said for learning how to respect someone you are in competition with. Bad sportsmanship teaches people to do things like the sucker punch to the head we saw in a previous post. Good sportsmanship teaches you to value the person you are in competition with and respect their dignity.
In terms of education and testing. I think these are two different topics. They also have very different stakes. Education, whether tests are good or bad, that impacts the course of a person's entire life (including what kind of job they might get, how much they could earn). So the stakes are different there and I think more than testing, there is a problem of how much we've allowed that to determine how comfortably a person is going to live after they graduate. Sports might get you a scholarship but I think that isn't the point, and it shouldn't be (I don't believe in sports scholarships personally)
