I thought this paper about "deliberate practice" was interesting. It addresses the myth that massively superior achievement is predicated entirely upon being born with a genetic gift. The true differentiator, according to the study, is an individual's ability to apply deliberate practice. This essentially means practicing something for many hours a day, for years, with directed goals toward greatness.
At first I found this discovery to be encouraging. This means that our children can achieve greatness, even if they are not at the top of their field at the youngest age.
But then as I thought about it, I was discouraged. You still need to be born with a rare gift. It is just the wrong gift that people look for. The gift is not skill. The gift is a rare sense of dedication.
I have come across many parents who feel that their child is one of those gifted geniuses in one field or another. Of course, it is almost impossible for them to see through their own bias. So something I would suggest for them is to think about whether they objectively find that the child will work at an endeavor for hours, pushing through frustration, showing marked, self-directed improvement over time. If so, then they really do have something exceptional.
1 comment:
I think the thing parents can do is provide the means to the best education, have thier kids try different things out, and then they can decide what they like the best and what they are good at (whether or not the same), and then of course it requires lots and lots of hard work and dedication- to excel at anything. remember edison's famous quote: its 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.
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