Society should identify those children who have special talents and provide training for them at an early age to develop their talents. Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the recommendation and explain you

Thomas Edison once said that genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration. He might have summed up the definition of what is genius as well as of how the society should deal with this special gift. I agree with the recommendation that society should identify the special talent of the genius and offer proper programs that develop their gift. Nevertheless, the issue of when and how the society should interfere into the socialization process of the young child is another matter for further consideration.

To begin with, the society has to prepare for providing appropriate training for the especially talented children with meticulous care. It shouldn’t hinder the natural process of child’s socialization in the meanwhile. For example, every Korean might have got wind about the name, Yoo-Geun Song and felt sorry for the news of his personal tragedy. Song gained public recognition as a genius when he was eight years old. And he finished all the twelve-year span curriculum of elementary school, middle school, and high school in nine months, setting a new record in Korea. When he matriculated into the university, Inha University made a special committee of professors only for him. This was because he was too young to take the undergraduate courses with other adult students at his parent’s request. However, he could not complete the course and dropped out of the school after two years of study. Then, in 2010, he started to enter into the combined course of master’s and Ph. D. program at UST according to the school’s decision and he has conducted research on black holes. But according to recent news, he could not complete his Ph. D thesis because of the personal trouble with his professor. This story debunked the fact that the Korean society has prepared nothing for coping with such special children as Song. This means not only the personal tragedy of the genius, but the huge loss for the whole society. Both of the Korean society and the Song’s parents should have shared the responsibility for cultivating the child’s personality as a social being as well as academic competence. The problem in Song’s case was that the two social institutions cared only about academic achievement of the child and completely ignored his socialization process.

On the other hand, another famous Korean genius, Yuna Kim delivers a success story of how the society as well as the individuals, her parents, compromised to develop her special talent. Kim is the 2010 Olympic champion and the 2014 Olympic silver medalist. She first gained public recognition through IOC Junior Grand competitions in the early 2000s. She reported the weakness of the Korean skating infrastructure, saying that she had to practice at the public skating center due to the lack of ice links for professional skaters at that time. Since then, Korean government as well as other commercial institutions tried to give systematic offer to the athlete. These efforts have been bloomed into unprecedented records since 2008, and finally Kim became the champion in 2010 Olympic game. The harmony between her and her parents’ individual effort and the society’s organized help was the factor that helped Kim became the world figure in the history of skating. Unlike from Song’s story, the society did not isolate Kim from other peers; it, on the contrary, let her naturally cultivate her social personality with others. It focused on figuring out what was the most emergent need for the child and provided it, without hampering the child’s natural process of socialization. Had it not been for the systematic combination between the individual effort and the society’s help to cultivate the athlete’s talent, there might not exist such historical figure like Yuna Kim in Korea.

In brief, I agree with the recommendation that society should recognize the children with special talents and educate them at an early age to develop their talents. However, this holds true only when the society takes appropriate measure when and how to offer the additional training for the genius to develop the talent. Society should care about both developing the genius’ unique abilities and their growth as a member of the society who should exist with others.