Many people assume that superior intelligence or ability is a key to success. But more than three decades of research shows that an overemphasis on intellect or talent—and the implication that such traits are innate and fixed—leaves people vulnerable to failure, fearful of challenges and unmotivated to learn.
Teaching people to have a “growth mind-set,” which encourages a focus on effort rather than on intelligence or talent, produces high achievers in school and in life.
Parents and teachers can engender a growth mind-set in children by praising them for their effort or persistence (rather than for their intelligence), by telling success stories that emphasize hard work and love of learning, and by teaching them about the brain as a learning machine.
source: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-secret-to-raising-smart-kids
I was just reading “The Way of No Debt” [1] by Leo Babauta, and having been following his posts and reading most of them since a year of so ago, I see in this post further evidence to my thinking that people are not born superior to others, in the intellectual sense, (i.e; geniuses) but are turned into or turn themselves into such superior humans. It’s further evidence that they become like such due to adequate and conscious nurture and, of course, dedication, hard work, and persistence.
What made me make a connection between this thought about the superior humans, or as many call them “geniuses” or “talented”, and Leo is that this post of his [1] made me think of the situation he was in. He definitely was not happy or positive and he surely was in pain. One could only imagine being in such a situation, but dealing with it is just another matter.
I am also reminded of a video I watched earlier today about “Avoiding Career Obsolescence” that mentions the “talented” students issue. It might help convey my message [2].
“…the talent is the province exceptional people doing exceptional things.
We can recognize the talented lady Gaga or Roger Federer but not the talent of a cook at a local coffee shop who day in day out prepares delicious meals for the patron…
…this perverse view of talent begins very early in our lives.
it begins in elementary school when we give a test to kids and we designate one small group who score high on that test as gifted and talented which means by definition that every other child is un-gifted and untalented…
…now of course we want to do whatever we can to take care of our kids that are academically proficient but we have to find a way to do that without signaling to every other child that they were at the anvil wine when talent was handed out because nothing could be further from the truth. You see talent isn’t a skill, it isn’t a competency. Talent is the capacity for excellence and it is an attribute [characteristic] of our species…”*
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[1] http://zenhabits.net/no-debt
[2] http://youtu.be/NSNIIsmbKIk?t=7m15s
* square brackets are my emphasis
Ibrahim El Merehbi 