I used to have an adviser in college who would ask me the question "What should be valued more: effort or talent?" and I never seemed able to answer it.
My initial inclination was to value effort more - because, after all, haven't we always heard that we can succeed if we simply work harder than anyone else. Isn't it better to work hard than to have things handed to you? He, on the other hand, would always say that talent was more important, and that success should be judged on results not on the process. I'm not quite sure how much of that was just him playing Devil's Advocate a bit, though. In the years that have passed since we had this conversation, I never got the sense that he truly felt that way. Rather, knowing what I know of him, he probably was simply trying to get me to question my "knee-jerk" reactions (emphasis on the "jerk" part), and really felt that neither of them was MORE important than the other. I'm not naive enough to think I have a definitive answer to this conundrum, but it's something that came into my mind recently.
With the dawning of my 5th decade on this planet, I no longer think that effort is more important, and have settled into the opinion that these two variables work together to create success. Situationally, I suppose that an individual can overcome deficiencies through applied effort, and other individuals can float by on talent without really applying themselves, but I would suspect that those would be the extreme ends of the normal curve. Most of us, I would guess, have unique talents that are either exploited or wasted depending on the effort that we put into cultivating them.
I've started to wonder how these two things work together, and what I can learn about myself from viewing how I've applied my talents and my efforts. For a great portion of my life I was an adequate athlete that didn't really try very hard. I played football, basketball and ran track and field in High School, but didn't live and breathe any of these sports. I enjoyed practice, but didn't always focus. The same goes for academics. I was considered a good student because I knew the "game" of school and could remember most things that I saw or heard. I would do my homework on the bus to school or between classes, and I was able to maintain a high-B/low-A average throughout school without really trying to hard. In both instances, I would guess that I was above average in terms of talent and either average or slightly below average in terms of effort.
That's flipped a bit since I started trying to get in shape. I spent my 20's and a good amount of my 30's sitting behind a computer for a living. This lead to a sedate life and an expanding waistline. Once I made the decision to get in shape, I had to learn how to put effort into the tasks that used to come naturally. I couldn't lose weight by simply drinking fewer beers...I had to actually get on an elliptical and work it off. I had to work for those things that talent used to afford without much effort. Seeing results made the effort worthwhile, and made me see the utility of redoubling those efforts. This process has brought me through 4 laps at 3 Tough Mudders, and I feel as if I'm absolutely on the right path for success at my Tough Mudder challenges this year (and I may even be able to get across those damn monkey bars)
So, what does this all mean for education? The lesson that I've learned is that we need to provide guidance on both of these variables if we want to engender success. And, by guidance, I don't mean simply telling people that they are important. We need to demonstrate each of these things in practice. As teachers, we need to demonstrate our skills and our efforts, and make it overt that we are doing so. It is only through modeling of these behaviors that we can hope to convince students that they should also be putting effort into those things that might come easily otherwise. If we can do that, then maybe our students won't have to be smacked by the expanding waistline before seeing the importance of melding effort and talent to get where they want to go.
My initial inclination was to value effort more - because, after all, haven't we always heard that we can succeed if we simply work harder than anyone else. Isn't it better to work hard than to have things handed to you? He, on the other hand, would always say that talent was more important, and that success should be judged on results not on the process. I'm not quite sure how much of that was just him playing Devil's Advocate a bit, though. In the years that have passed since we had this conversation, I never got the sense that he truly felt that way. Rather, knowing what I know of him, he probably was simply trying to get me to question my "knee-jerk" reactions (emphasis on the "jerk" part), and really felt that neither of them was MORE important than the other. I'm not naive enough to think I have a definitive answer to this conundrum, but it's something that came into my mind recently.With the dawning of my 5th decade on this planet, I no longer think that effort is more important, and have settled into the opinion that these two variables work together to create success. Situationally, I suppose that an individual can overcome deficiencies through applied effort, and other individuals can float by on talent without really applying themselves, but I would suspect that those would be the extreme ends of the normal curve. Most of us, I would guess, have unique talents that are either exploited or wasted depending on the effort that we put into cultivating them.
I've started to wonder how these two things work together, and what I can learn about myself from viewing how I've applied my talents and my efforts. For a great portion of my life I was an adequate athlete that didn't really try very hard. I played football, basketball and ran track and field in High School, but didn't live and breathe any of these sports. I enjoyed practice, but didn't always focus. The same goes for academics. I was considered a good student because I knew the "game" of school and could remember most things that I saw or heard. I would do my homework on the bus to school or between classes, and I was able to maintain a high-B/low-A average throughout school without really trying to hard. In both instances, I would guess that I was above average in terms of talent and either average or slightly below average in terms of effort.That's flipped a bit since I started trying to get in shape. I spent my 20's and a good amount of my 30's sitting behind a computer for a living. This lead to a sedate life and an expanding waistline. Once I made the decision to get in shape, I had to learn how to put effort into the tasks that used to come naturally. I couldn't lose weight by simply drinking fewer beers...I had to actually get on an elliptical and work it off. I had to work for those things that talent used to afford without much effort. Seeing results made the effort worthwhile, and made me see the utility of redoubling those efforts. This process has brought me through 4 laps at 3 Tough Mudders, and I feel as if I'm absolutely on the right path for success at my Tough Mudder challenges this year (and I may even be able to get across those damn monkey bars)
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