Mission band 8-9, kindly comment on my essay

[terry3218]

It is generally believed that some people are born with certain talents, for instance for sport or music, and others are not. However, it is sometimes claimed that any child can be taught to become a good sports person or musician. Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.

People have differing opinions as to what makes a high achiever. Some believe that a person has got to possess certain innate traits to become an excellent performer while the other school of thought is that anyone can become an excellent performer, if being taught in a right way. I tend to gravitate towards the latter school of thought.

Firstly, we have to admit that in certain realms in life, to achieve greatness, you have got to have the right genetics, to illustrate, a shorter person will always be at a disadvantage against a taller person in basketball. Secondly, many children display phenomenal qualities at sports and music that it wouldn’t be irrational to believe that they were born with these characteristics, enabling them to excel in their chosen fields.

However, I strongly believe that talent is massively overhyped in our culture. If we examine the lives of top performers in any field such as Tiger Woods in Golf or Mozart in music, we would realize that these people didn’t have any inborn attributes that we normally associate with geniuses. What in fact happens is that such people normally are exposed to the areas that they would grow up to excel in, later in their lives, from a very tender age. There is indeed no such thing as a child prodigy which is evident from biographies of almost all of highly recognized top performers. In addition, these people spend a painstaking amount of time perfecting their acts whether be it symphonies or a particular kind of move in sports.

To conclude, in spite of the fact that most people believe that talent is inborn, I beg to differ with this notion and believe that as long as the trait in question is not purely physical, like height, any child or person can become a top performer in their chosen domain with enough time spent in practice.

316 words

[Flick]

It is generally believed that some people are born with certain talents, for instance for sport or music, and others are not. However, it is sometimes claimed that any child can be taught to become a good sports person or musician. Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.

People have differing opinions as to what makes a high achiever. Some believe that a person has got to possess certain innate traits to become an excellent performer, while the other school of thought is that anyone can become an excellent performer, if taught in the right way. I tend to gravitate towards the latter school of thought.

Firstly, we have to admit that in certain realms in life, to achieve greatness, you have got to have the right genetics. To illustrate, a shorter person will always be at a disadvantage against a taller person in basketball. Secondly, many children display phenomenal qualities at sports and music that it wouldn’t be irrational to believe that they were born with these characteristics, enabling them to excel in their chosen fields.

However, I strongly believe that talent is massively overhyped in our culture. If we examine the lives of top performers in any field, such as Tiger Woods in Golf or Mozart in music, we realize that these people didn’t have any inborn attributes that we normally associate with geniuses. What in fact happens is that such people normally are exposed to the areas that they grow up to excel in later in their lives, from a very tender age. There is indeed no such thing as a child prodigy, which is evident from biographies of almost all of the highly recognized top performers. In addition, these people spend a painstaking amount of time perfecting their skills, whether it is creating symphonies or a doing particular kind of move in sports.

To conclude, in spite of the fact that most people believe that talent is inborn, I beg to differ with this notion and believe that, as long as the trait in question is not purely physical, like height, any child or person can become a top performer in their chosen domain with enough time spent in practice.

316 words

[terry3218]

Thanks a lot Flick. It's fascinating that you take time out of your schedule to help people.