Best Educational Practices
Abstract
The purpose of this essay is to reflect on the notion of greatness and what is required to become exceptional in a certain domain. This essay argues that talent has nothing to do with greatness. Even talented people may fail to become the best in what they do. Hard work, deliberate practice and continuity over many years are required to become really great in something. Teaches can motivate and inspire students to achieve greatness. There are many ways in which they can do it. However, some teachers engage in overboard practices, which motivate students in a short-run, but destroy them mentally and emotionally in the long-run. Best Educational Practices Greatness refers to the feeling of superiority in a particular field. People feel that they are great in something when they are exceptional, when they can perform better than others. Greatness is when people are admired for what they do, because they do it perfectly well.
Sometimes people have certain exceptional abilities. They may develop it from early childhood or in adulthood. Thus, parents can notice that their children possess certain skills which other kids do not have. They may have special abilities with regard to different subjects and outperform other students.However, the most prevailing view is that no one actually possesses a natural gift for a certain job, simply because there are no targeted natural gifts (Colvin, 2006). Usually kids strive to achieve more. This occurs when kids really admire a certain field and would like to become the best in it. They challenge themselves every day to achieve greatness in what they admire. Thus, greatness can be attained through a hard work over many years. This work is not only hard, but rather demanding and painful. For instance, one of the most famous men in financial world W. Buffett was renowned for his discipline and hours spent studying financial statements of potential investment targets. Thus, a lack of natural gift is not very important because talent has nothing to do with greatness (Colvin, 2006). Talent is not related to intelligence, motivation or personal traits which can push a person to become the best in something. Scientists have proven that no one is great without work (Colvin, 2006).
This means that it is wrong to think that it will be possible to reach greatness without work in the field where one is naturally gifted. To achieve greatness, one should follow certain procedures. This approach is evident in Coach Carter. When Ken Carter starts coaching the basketball team, he makes athletes to attend all classes, engage in all practices created by the coach, maintain a C average, wear certain clothes on game days, and respect all rules and procedures. Researches show no evidence of high-level performance without experience or practice. Even gifted people require about 10 years of hard practice to become exceptional in something.
However, there are cases when people work hard without achieving greatness. It is important to note …
