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Something that really resonated with me after thursday's class was paige's idea that we valorize winners (in her case it was how we focused on the English and how they conquered the world). The more I thought about it the more it seemed to be a common idea among the cultures I've seen in my life. For example in Indian culture, or at least my famliy, they are always psuhing to be the best at EVERYTHING and there is no exception.No grey area. You either win or you loose. But you better win.

All throughout my American schooling i've seen parents pushing their kids to always win. When I went to an international school I saw how a majority of the Korean students' parents had started teaching them English, the violin, and math as young children. Those same kids were spending every waking moment in the orchestra pit or in the classroom, with little to no down time. Humans want to, and maybe need to win.

While I know there are exceptions to that declaritive statement above, I've noticed a trend. Especially in my generation of students who are pushing themselves to exhaustion because they just end up juggling too many activies and assignments because they want to be the best.

Although in some cultures this idea of needing to be the best, or win, may not have developed past the stage of friendly competition. The example I'm thinking of is that of the aztecs (i think) who played an ancient version of soccer/basketball where they bounced a rubber ball with different parts of their bodies into stone rings in a court. The players were athletic young treibespeople who had the whole world going for them. After the game the loosers and winner would stand in front of the king and he would choose which team would be sacraficed. You'd think it would be the looers, but not always. Many times it was the winners who were sacrficed. So I guess in this culture, winners aren't always valorized.