“Genius is 1% talent and 99% percent hard work…” -Albert Einstein
Should parents, teachers, and employers reward achievements rather than talents? No. I say this because at the end of the day, talent will get you the job you are after rather than having a list of achievements. Having a bunch of achievements will look great on your resume, but if you can’t backup what you know or can do, it becomes trivial. From experience with classes I’ve taken, observations about job employment after college and readings about musical talent and virtual learning labs, talent should be rewarded over achievements.
There were several classes in my lifetime where I would show up to class, do all the assigned homework and study for exams. In this example should the teacher reward the student for all these? No. First of all, that is the job of a student and to reward that would be silly. What the teacher should reward the student is if they got something out of the class. To elaborate, if they learned something instead of regurgitating information to finish a class for an achievement. That is why talent is important than achievements.
From observation, finishing your undergraduate degree alone will not get you a job. Having a bachelor’s degree is an achievement of its own but needs support of other achievements, such as internships. In the end, if you do manage to have a bachelor’s degree, internship experience, volunteer work, etc., you may not even get the job you want as you must pass the interview process. The interview process is where you display your talents to your future employers, as your achievements are just prerequisites to get this interview.
In Joanne Haroutounian’s article “MusicLink: Nurturing Talent and Recognizing the Achievement”, she says that the development of musical talent is a team effort, by the parents who see their child play with sounds in a unique way and teachers who guide them in their musical education. She also says that “this intertwining support allows the musically relented student to grow and flourish.” Building upon their talent is a better approach than building on their achievements. In Bonnie Swan’s article “Meeting the Needs of Gifted and Talented Students” she talks about how researchers used case study methods to investigate a virtual learning lab in a rural school district that was created in 2011 as a way to better meet the unique needs of exceptional students who are considered gifted. “Many schools and states are turning to online learning to replace or supplement teaching in brick-and-mortar classrooms. A recent report by the National Center for Education Statistics (Queen & Lewis, 2011) revealed that for 2009–2010, 55% of public school districts reported having students enrolled in distance education courses. This is up from about 37% in 2004–2005. Among those districts with enrollment in distance education, 96% reported having distance education at the high school level, with fewer having it at the middle (19%) and elementary (6%) school levels. The report also revealed that while many offer these courses for course credit recovery (57%), even more do so to provide courses not otherwise available at the school (64%).” We should reward students that are talented than those who meet achievements.
Parents, teachers, and employers should reward talents rather than achievements. In this day and age, almost anyone can have a list of achievements which kind of equates to a participation award. From having finished a school course to finishing college. But talent is unique. That is why we should reward achievements rather than talents.
Peer review source: http://discover.sjlibrary.org:50080/ebsco-w-a/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=c1c73435-9609-44ed-9712-85886f9934e7%40sessionmgr4006&vid=2&hid=4209
Peer review source #2: http://discover.sjlibrary.org:50080/ebsco-w-b/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=4486cd15-5da4-4dfb-bc5a-d5eebfdec0f0%40sessionmgr103&vid=2&hid=116