Society should identify those children who have special talents and provide training for them at an early age to develop their talents

Talented children, if trained from an early age, can not only do wonders in their respective streams but also benefit the entire society. Therefore, a society must identify especially talented children and train them to develop their talents from an early age. Yet, such training and development must not come at the expense of neglecting other children.

Verily, providing training to talented children from early age will fetch multiple benefits for them. Foremost, every child is a unique combination of traits, qualities and aptitude as corroborated by the Gardener’s theory of multiple intelligences that classifies skill-sets of children into different categories such as word-smart, Maths-smart, sound-smart, etc. Children are very receptive and malleable at early age and if their traits and qualities are specifically nurtured from the beginning they can do miracles in their prospective professions. In fact, gaining expertise in myriad arts and sports such as music, chess, gymnasium, etc warrant early childhood training. Further, precocious children, if trained together, would drive each other by competition. This would give them an opportunity to reflect on their shortcomings and appreciate their strength. Otherwise, without competition from equally talented peers, such children are likely to develop superiority complex over other ‘mediocre’ commoners and feel alienated. Further, mentoring and engaging such prodigies through training would protect them from falling into bad company, addictions, drinking, smoking and other distractions.

Moreover, fostering of talented children for specific professions cannot be done without adequate, and often expensive, resources. For example, a music prodigy requires musical instruments; chess talents need coaching, athletes and sports aspirants require infrastructure; science students want labs; and so on. While critics claim that parents have the responsibility to develop the innate talents of their wards, not all of them have required means to facilitate such development. The onus, then, lies with the society to provide the required resources to those talents. Additionally, by investing in the precocious talents, a society also stands to benefit by guaranteeing itself with the endowment of future heroes and role-models. For instance, the pride of Argentina, Lionel Messi was coached from a tender age; and so was the case with the chess genius Bobby Fischer who brought laurels for US. Furthermore, through mentoring and training from early age, a society can also inculcate values, beliefs and desire in students for contributing to societal welfare, once they are established.

However, the proposition overlooks the instances where an exclusive training program can deprive the deserving children as well. Firstly, apart from being naturally bestowed, children can also acquire talent through hard work and efforts as exemplified by the success story of Cristiano Ronaldo and the likes. Secondly, without an appropriate and effective means of identifying special talents, even the most precocious children may get screened as the ordinaries. Thirdly, qualities of certain children appear late in their school years. For example, Einstein in early school years struggled with speech difficulties, yet went on to become a legendary Physicist. The author’s recommendation for an exclusive training would deprive all such children as well as the society from the intended and possible benefits. Therefore, any such training must be open to all students instead of the elite ones or else it would be discriminatory. Lastly, if a society is obligated to train talented children, it also has the responsibility to care for children with special learning difficulties; and, hence, it must also cater for the learning needs of such children.

In conclusion, nurturing prodigies from an early age is not only advantageous for them but also for the society in multiple ways. However, any such training program must also be accessible to the interested students who may not qualify into the society’s unreliable list of talented children. Better yet, a society must endeavour to care for the learning needs of all the children to mould them into responsible citizens of tomorrow.