This article raises the point, it's all about effort and not about talent and ability. What are your thoughts?
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
The Secret to Raising Smart Kids
This article raises the point, it's all about effort and not about talent and ability. What are your thoughts?
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44 comments:
While effort is involved, I still strongly believe that intellectual ability and mental talent do play at least some part in the "smart" quota. There are always the kids who can put no effort in and still make straight As, and there will always be the kids that work excrucriatingly hard and get the same grades. As a society we look at the carefree people as intelligent because they seem "naturally" smart. However, as the article shows, this mode of work does not bode well for these types of students in the future.
Some kids are inately intelligent, while others are inately creative. It all depends on how your brain develops in the womb. Though an inately intelligent child can become stupid if not educated correctly, and an inately stupid child can become quite intelligent if pushed in the right direction. It is all in the perfect mix of the two.
Effort is definetly one of the hugest reasons that kids do well! without a person's hard work and studying, most people dont succeed. a person just has to motvate themselves to work hard and learn all their information to do well.
Innate intelligence helps because it can help in the amount of time it takes to learn the information. With increased intelligence, a person is able to study better and therefore do well in what they do. It will be easier for the "smarter people" to study basically..
WORK HARD AND YOU'LL DO WELL..THE AMOUNT OF HARD WORK CAN DEPEND ON UR INTELLIGENCE LEVEL THOUGH..
Even if a child is raised by the most ambitious parents, ambition can only take a person so far. Children who are striving to succeed but lack natural mental ability stand no chance against children who are both eager and naturally gifted. In the end, it all comes down to one simple fact that many of us have to learn to come to terms with: no matter how good you are, there is always someone who is better.
For most cases, being innately smart and putting the effort in are mostly equally proportionate to a person's success wherever he is. Although, even though you may be a genius in your own right, being lazy and slackin off all the time won't continue to provide the same success as the effort brings in, obviously. In this society, most people can be not very "smart in nature" but can still be smart kids by commitment and effort anyway; although, its all relative for how smart someone is anyway. Just because a student does poorly in a math class doesn't mean he is an idiot or not a "smart kid." He may just choose not to pay attention or not care but can still be successful if he focuses on what he likes/believes in. I believe being naturally gifted can sometimes be overthrown by someone with ridiculous working effort, personally.
The combination of being talented and showing effort can be beneficial. One may have talents and intellectual ability and that alone can make them successful. However, just because you try hard doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to be successful. You can try hard at something and still for lack of a better word "suck" at it.
Effort has a lot to do with intelligence, but like Jessica said one student can work extremely hard at a subject and get the same grade as someone who gives no effort.
In my opinion, the effort makes up for the lack of intelligence - however great or small it may be. If you know that they are trying their very hardest, then it should be good enough. Don't push a kid to a point that they can't reach! It's pointless and the child will eventually give up all together, feeling like they failed.
effort can make up for any lack of intellectual shortcomings, barring mental retardation of course. if a child isn't as smart as others, but puts his mind to doing well and makes a wholehearted effort into studying, then there is no reason that kid cant be as successful as those more intelligent than him. naturally, having a certain degree of intelligence is always a plus. but having raw intelligence can only get you so far. we all know kids who are really freaking smart, but dont do anything and thats why they're not in top ten percent or sometimes not even in the top half of the class. while they may ace tests, they do no daily work and subsequently get low grades. but this course of action can only take you so far. eventually that kid has got to put some effort into things if he wishes to be successful.
so the moral of the story is:
effort can bring a person and exponential success, while raw intelligence can only take you so far (though i really want to know just how far it can take person).
Parents can only push their children so far. Sure, most people want to be intelligent, but also want to put in zero effort for the title. I believe hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard.
I think that some kids are innately smart. But that those same kids will have to try at some point, and when they do, it will be even more challenging for the kids who are used to putting in the effort.
As for the parents, I think that as long as the kid tries, he is considered 'smart'.
Due to the fact that I believe both effort and talent/ability are imperative as determinants for a student's success, I really think you need both to be ultimately prosperous. Say you're naturally smart (like me) and you just lack the ability to put forth the effort needed. You have some smarts to get by, but you very well could do better. On the other hand, say you put forth a great deal of effort (unlike me) and you lack natural common sense. Sure, you'll do better than others on schoolwork, but you would be farther behind in life!
I agree with basically everything Mr. Schwarz has to say.
Someone can be "born smart" but if they don't put it to good use then it won't help them be successful.
I just think people have different life styles and the basis for a successful life should not be about what degree you have and how much money is in your bank account.
Like Demo said:
"Just because a student does poorly in a math class doesn't mean he is an idiot or not a "smart kid." He may just choose not to pay attention or not care but can still be successful if he focuses on what he likes/believes in."
I see myself as that 'kid.' I don't try in school, but I do try be successful at work. I believe I can be equally successful as someone with all A's if I just use my abilities in the right way.
In short--
common sense > book smart
i think it should be based on effort not grades because holly thompson proved tp me that i could try my hardest and still fail..... thanck you thom thom
talent and ability dont necessarily translate into the classroom all the time. My parents for example believe that its based on ability, because no matter how much effort i put in, it's very difficult to impress them. Effort is very important because the harder you try the more focused you are and the more you get out of it. Effort is more important overall because with out effort, nothing will ever get done.
Talent and ability will only take you so far. Effort just shows how committed you are to a goal. I personally believe that Talent and ability are equal amoung everyone. There is just this illusion of perspective that limits people to beleive that talent and ability actually exist. Effort is everything. It shows humanistic qualities defining even more character in a person.
I honestly believe this to be true as well as necessary in the development of children. Kids need to feel that they are succesful snd wanted. Each child is very different from one another and posses very different qualities. This obviously means that not every child can be a star athlete or a genius in the class room, however they are given the oppurtunity to participate, which in turn will increase their self esteem. Once this has happened and they finally gain confidence in themselves alotting for a rise in their overall effort in the events the participate in.
Kids need motivation, you can not just sit there and keep praising them. They need to be pushed. Yes, you can be naturally smart or talented, but natural ability will only take a person so far. Without the proper guidance, that has a balance of praise and motivation, the child will have no room to grow.
There are some kids who are really gifted and don't need to even need to open a book in order to get A's on tests. There are also people who have to work really hard in order to get that A they want. However, there are also some people who are very smart but don't give any effort so they end up failing. I agree with the author of this article and that students need to be praised for their hard work and that their main goal should be to do their best.
Good grades come from effort or natural intelligence, however the best grades come from a combination of both. A person can put an effort in to completing their assignments and make a decent grade, likewise a person with natural intelligence, with zero effort, and make the same grade. However, the person that puts in the most effort and possesses natural intelligence, gets the best grades.
im gonna go out on a limb here, even though i dont like trees very much. being naturally gifted can sometimes account for success, but i think the biggest determinant is working ability. some kids become smarter due to the tremendous amount of work they put in, and all parents should advocate a positive work ethic. honestly i dont even know why i agree with micah and demo, but they go together like macaroni and cheese
That was pretty much a story about me. She even spelled my name corretcly.
I believe that a combo of innate smartness and effort would be amazing to have. Yet, when viewing the matters separately, I question which I would rather have. I honestly do believe that though innate smartness would be quite advantageous, a person lacking the motivation to work and submit effort will eventually struggle because one's innate smartness can't take survive forever. A strong work ethic, i believe, is most important.
some people are just smart naturally.. if they try then theyre awesome.
others arent as naturally smart but can work hard to achieve their goals. both can yield the same results. not trying gets you no where no matter how smart you are.
I was also raised by people telling me i was smart...maybe its cuzz i will be the first in my immediate family getting a college education, or maybe cuzz i read books all the time as a kid..
though they tell me that im smart, my parents have also warned me that im not THAT smart so i still need to work at it... so it ends up my effort is at a moderate level, i just work hard enough to try to balance myself with the people around me and friends. i dont exactly know and I cannot confirm the correlation between what your parents say to u and how u behave as a result... i dont think that study applies to everyone. for some people being told that they are smart might encourage them to keep up with parental expectation.. youre lucky if ur smart without working that hard.
We've refused to acknowledge that success a very subjective matter and trying to set the perfect intelligence:effort ratio for success is a rather futile thing to do. There is very little one can do about one's level of intellect; therefore, hard work is the only value that a parent instill with their child to give him a chance at achieving their own individual sense of success.
What is success after grade school or even college? Success is not how much you feel you have learned or the grades you got, but if you are able to apply knowledge to your career and run with it. In this sense, the success you achieved in school is trivial to success in a career. Many of the smartest of the smart break their butts in school and college, learn and stuff, but end up working in a cubicle with low health benefits. Please excuse me if you would like to aspire to a cubicle job.
not everyone is equally smart and of course there will always be someone that has to try harder to get good grades and for people that are not very smart they have to put more effort in order to get the grades they want....
I think that hard work is really all it takes to do well in school. Sure, being "smart" helps, but if you ask most of the kids in our top ten percent, they'll tell you they're not really all that smart, they just worked hard. I think that's what makes someone smart - the fact that they took the initiative to do well and to apply themselves.
But, after all, school and careers are completely different. Who cares how "smart" you are if you have no personality? In the end, I don't really think intelligence matters, but I do think that the ability to perform your job to the best of your ability is what's important. An employer doesn't care about your grades if you can't do the job you were hired to do, and it's as simple as that.
Education and the development of children is a necessity for our future to prosper and to not turn out like messed up lazy people. Of course some children understand certain concepts a lot faster than others....Like Nick Shipman....compared to other students who have difficulty learning....like me. yet in order to obtain the full benefits of learning, practice is vital.
People aren't born smartbutts. I know I wasn't. I have common sense to (sometimes) apply myself in the subjects I need to graduate, and that's that. Effort is a major factor in gaining book smarts, not just being born.
I mostly agree with the article. I know that a lot of kids will go farther if they have encouragement to work harder. If someone is constantly telling a kid that he is naturally smart, chances are he won't want to work as hard because he thinks he doesn't have to.
the article was pretty interestinng because i found myself somewhat exactly like Jonathon for years ive been told i was smart and i stopped studying and have lost intrest in books. now that i know this ill try ot put sime extra effort in my studies at college
I thought it was interesting how the "naturally" smart kids did worse because of their weak study skills, and average students can exceed with a little hard work. In the end, hardwork is what pays off. Maybe these naturally smart kids get the grades, but many of these students will not learn to value hard work and dedication.
Not every child falls under certain categories. Children may have to capacity to achieve something, but might not have the ability nor the desire to achieve those things. Every child is special in some way... and yes they are intelligent in some aspect... but every child has their own definition of intelligence... for example... intelligence in the arts... or intelligence with people skills.... the key is finding the strengths.
A kid who isn't "naturally" smart but puts in a lot of time and effort into his work seems to be a better overall student than a "naturally" smart kid who puts in no effort at all. In the real world, a person with a better work ethic may have a better chance at being successful than a person with no work ethic. As for the parents, they should be proud of their kids if they know that their kids are putting in the time and effort to be successful in school and in life.
i think it all depends on your surroundings for example angela is Asian so therefore Asian=smart and Hispanic boy not the best I will admit. However but being around people who are of greater intellengence influences you to work harder because my parents telling me how my grades should be got old and I finnaly came to realization that I could do the same work if I tried.
Effort is essential to anything that one does. Without effort you are setting yourself up to slack eventually. However it is true that effort can only take one so far. In the end, one better pray to have a lil bit of talent and drive.
Natural talent is useless if its development is not supplemented with hard work and effort. Someone who is naturally gifted but does not work hard can be easliy outdone by someone who is less naturally talented but puts in the extra effort.
My brother was a perfect example of a child who grew up knowing he was tremendously gifted intellectually however his work ethic was virtually non-existent throughout high school (I don’t know if you remember him Mr. Pye, I think I remember you calling our house a few years ago to tell my mom he didn’t work at all in your class.) Anyway.. His grades did not reflect his intellectual ability and even though he was mentally gifted he was not successful in maintaining a decent grade in any of his classes. Anyway, the article is talking about raising smart kids and I think that even if your kid is smart the only way they will be able to develop and be successful in most areas is though hard work, effort, and dedication.
i think both qualities together can yield amazing results but a person who is naturally smart and does not put any effort in what he or she is trying to achieve will not get the results they assumed.
I do realize the major gap in intelligence in kids now a days. But honestly, there are always the kids who give NO effort and expect the grades to be passing. It is true that some kids can just naturally spill out corret answers but in reality with no effort there will be no high grade. In highschool it is obvious who works for their grades and who the slackers are, some kids are lucky to have the smart genes, but unlucky if they don't apply it
chelbi jackson
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