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Lesson Plans


Re: What is talent? Part-2

From: Jane Altshuler (jane)
Date: Sat Jul 01 2000 - 22:46:22 PDT

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     [I am most hesitant to use the term descriptively in that,
    as noted, students without 'talent' have a built in reason not to try.]

    I've been reading this thread for a while now. I have always explained to my
    students that we are all going down a path and that "talent" just means that you
    start out further down the path than others. My father is an artist and so am I
    and people who are not artists are always going on about how "talented" we are
    with a total disregard for all the work that goes into each of our pieces. Yes,
    I have a natural disposition for this kind of work, but that is not what gets
    paintings painted or sculptures made - it is time, devotion, and committment.
    Symphonies do not get written just because someone has talent, the composer has
    to learn what makes music good, what each instrument sounds like, and take the
    many hours to put it on paper.

    I'd much rather have someone appreciate the amount of work that has gone into my
    work, or ask me what I was thinking when I made it, or tell me how it makes them
    feel than tell me how talented I am. I may be talented, but I work really really
    hard to do what I do. 

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