This topic sort of irritates me, because a team I coached in Model United Nations had to deal with schools that focused on specific requirements for winning rather than on learning. The result was an unearthly submission of resolutions that slowed committee progress to a halt and that reduced realism markedly (submitting individual resolutions rather than working to combine them). What's worse is that some teams that followed this tactic did very well, and that some others confessed to their committee chairs that they needed to submit a resolution to do well in the course. The problem from a teacher and coach's perspective is the fact that the method really doesn't encourage that much learning about how the UN works - El Salvador won't whine in real life until the committee accepts its fifth resolution on the topic. The question then becomes whether or not it's more a simulation of the UN or more of an elaborate game. It's also a problem that I have with Spelling Bees, Geography Bees, Arkansas state ag quizzes, and quiz bowl - it's possible to quickly learn some needed information out of context, but you're not getting what you can or should out of it. The competition becomes an exercise in who can manipulate the rules best, and it loses any educational value it had along the way. If you approach any of the above in the correct manner, it can be beneficial - playing qb increased my interest in classical music and art - but anytime someone takes an approach that focuses on winning over learning, he or she will suffer and won't get as much as could be gained - even if he or she won a stupid-looking T-shirt. Hayden One P.S. This doesn't mean that list memorization is bad - every career has some items that you need to know cold, from IR people knowing countries and capitals to chem people knowing the Periodic Table to English teachers knowing plots and themes of most major works of literature. But, if you're going to memorize stuff when you're six, do like Kristin and Dave and read and memorize things because you want to and think it's cool rather than because you want to win a stupid contest.
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