With my first year of college in the books and the second year right around the corner, I’m beginning to notice how unprepared I was to enter college and how unprepared I am to enter the workforce. The competitive nature of the United States is slowly disintegrating and the “everyone wins” mindset has taken hold of the country, specifically when it comes to students. However, this new phenomenon is causing students to be completely unprepared to enter the world outside of high school, just like I am.

The problem is this: no one will let students lose. With this comes the elimination of class ranking and honor roll lists in academics. Some schools across America no longer tell students where they stand in their grade, whether they are top in their class or not. In many schools more than one valedictorian is chosen each year at graduation because they can’t choose just one to represent the school. Schools are even no longer publishing the honor roll in newspapers or social media in fear that it will make students who don’t make the cut feel bad about themselves. Little do they know, this new mind-set is harming students. Students who don’t do well in their academic or athletic life are being told that they don’t need to work to do well, and worse of all students who are doing the work no longer receive the recognition they deserve. School is no longer competitive in any sense and students are losing the competitive drive they need in order to succeed in college and the workforce.

High school is supposed to help students prepare for the world after graduation. However, students entering college for the first time lack the work ethic they need in order to succeed in the fast paced environment. Students start to fall behind when it comes to homework and grades because they aren’t used to having to put work into anything in order to do well and get recognized. Yet, people are surprised when students struggle to adjust to life after high school. College is about getting ahead of everyone so you can get the best job after graduation, but students now are too busy trying to catch up to the standards than trying to set up a future for themselves.

A country like the United States thrives off of a competitive atmosphere, and still students today are being told that being competitive is undesirable.This new mind set is causing students to fall behind in the competitive drive this country holds and be completely unprepared for the world they are thrown into after high school. People are stuck in an environment where everyone wins no matter how much work is put in, which, as a whole, is causing the opposite effect. In a world where everyone is falling behind there are no winners. It is no longer a world full of winners, but a world without winners.