We, the Potential Geniuses

UK, January 7, 2010:
Is genius innate and inevitable?
Is it genetic?
Should we give up already
if we are not exactly Leonardo DaVinci?  

Take heart.

New science suggests the source
of abilities is much more interesting
and improvisational.
It turns out that everything we are
is a developmental process-
-and this includes what we get from our genes.  

Geneticists once saw genes as robot actors, always uttering the same lines in exactly
the same way, and much of the public is still stuck with this old idea. In recent years,
though, scientists have seen a dramatic upgrade in their understanding of heredity.  
They now know that genes interact with their surroundings, getting turned on and off
all the time. In effect, the same genes have different effects depending on who they
are talking to. Bit by bit, they're gathering a better and better understanding
of how different attitudes, teaching styles and precise types of practice and exercise
push people along very different pathways.  
Does your child have the potential to develop into a world-class athlete,
a virtuoso musician, or a brilliant Nobel-winning scientist?  
It would be folly to suggest that anyone can literally do or become anything.
But the new science tells us that it's equally foolish to think that mediocrity is built into
most of us, or that any of us can know our true limits before we've applied
enormous resources and invested vast amounts of time.  
Our abilities are not set in genetic stone.
They are soft and sculptable, far into adulthood.
 With humility, with hope, and with extraordinary determination,
greatness is something to which any kid - of any age - can aspire


Michael_e


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