The Key to SuccessA five-year study of 120 of the nation's top artists, athletes and schol
The Key to Success
A five-year study of 120 of the nation's top artists, athletes and scholars has concluded that drive and determination, not great natural talent, led to their extraordinary success.
"We expected to find tales of great natural gifts," said University of Chicago education professor Benjamin Bloom, who led the team of researchers who studies the careers of America's top performers, "We didn't find that at all. Their mothers often said it was their other child who had the greater gifts."
The most brilliant mathematicians often said they had trouble in school and were rarely the best in their classes. Some world-class tennis players said their coaches viewed them as being too short ever to be outstanding, and the Olympic swimmers said they remembered getting regularly "clobbered"(打垮) in races as 10-year olds.
Anonymous Interviews
The foundation-supported research team conducted in-depth, anonymous interviews with the top 20 performers in the some fields, as judged by national championships or similar honors.
They also interviewed their families and teachers, hoping to learn how these individuals developed into extraordinary performers.
Instead, the researcher heard accounts of an extraordinary drive and dedication through which, for example, a typical swimmer would tell of getting up at 5:30 every morning to swim two hours before school and then two hours after school to attain his or her goal of making the Olympic team.
Bloom, an eminent educational researcher, said his findings "remind me of the old joke about the young man walking down a New York street who stops to ask a little old lady, 'How do I get to Carnegie Hall？' and she looks up and says, 'Practice, young man. Practice.'"
Although practice and motivation seemed to explain their success, the top performers, regardless of their field, appeared to follow a similar course of development, the researchers found.
In practically every case, the parents played the key role, first by exposing their children at an early age to music, sports or learning. The vast majority of the parents were not themselves outstanding musicians, athletes or scholars. For example, few than half of the parents of the distinguished pianists had ever played any musical instrument.
Valued Competition
But the parents of the swimmer and tennis players did enjoy sports and valued competition, Bloom reported. The families of the pianists appreciated art and music, while the parents of the research scientists displayed a great love for learning.
The parents of scientists reported that their children showed both an unusual curiosity about how things work and an "independent nature" that allowed them to play or work alone for hours.
Although it is not uncommon for children to ask repeatedly "Why？", "What appears to make the parents of scientists unique is the nature of their children's questions," Bloom wrote, "They responded to the questions seriously, often encouraging even more questions."
"These parents placed great stress on achievement, on success and on doing one's best at all times. They were models of the 'work ethic', believing that work should come before play and that one should always work toward distant goals." Bloom said. The results of the research will be published this week in a book entitled Developing Talent in Young People.
The families said in the interviews that they wanted their children to have "normal" childhoods and that they had no inkling(略知) that the children would achieve unusual success.
Parents Encouraged Them
But once a child displayed an interest and enthusiasm in a particular area, these parents encouraged them at every step and were willing to spend countless hours shuttling them to and from piano, tennis or swimming lessons.
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A．Y
B．N
C．NG
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