When speaking of someone who does something well athletically or in the creative arts, people generally use the word “talent.” Talia is not a moving painter because she has spent hours working and honing her craft; she is talented at painting. David is not an engaging actor because he has taken dozens of classes and has carefully developed his method of translating his characters to the audience; he is talented at acting.
According to Cambridge Dictionaries Online, talent is defined as a “natural ability to do something well.” This suggests that the person with the “talent” does not have to work to be good at what they do. They just are.
Of course, there are people born with extraordinary natural abilities. They can automatically run faster than anyone else can or play the piano immediately and with ease. If you are one of those people, congratulations. I am sure that you are marvelous at what you do and am not trying to discount the trials and tribulations that you face.
However, the fact is that most people are not born prodigies. They may find that certain skills are naturally easier to learn than others are, but that does not mean that they are automatically good at them. Most of the time, these things take a lot of effort. Still, society overlooks the work that has gone into most cases of excellence by labeling it “talent.”
Generally, society labels only the creative and athletic arts as “talents” rather than “skills.” This begins early and affects all subjects. For example, when I was growing up it was okay to be bad at art or not good at gym because they required talent. However, you had to try to be good at Math and Science. If you couldn’t get it or got bad grades because you were bored, people thought you were unintelligent (or a normal girl, but that is a large pill for a different day’s swallowing).
Of course, aptitude does exist. Some people will try for years and still be unable to draw a straight line or graph without a calculator. That is okay. However, it is damaging to suggest that one shouldn’t work at improving their skills in any area, especially with the intimation that if they are not immediately good, they will always be bad. People of all ages, but children especially, should be encouraged to try their best in all subjects and to figure out which skills they are most interested in honing. Otherwise, they will never know their true capabilities.
For instance, when I was a child I was bad at singing. I am not sure how bad I was, but the music teacher never selected me for the special choir and after my audition, she told the rest of the students to sing less of the song than I had. No one ever tried to teach me how to be better or to even tell me what I was doing wrong, aside from class lectures on keeping your mouth open and standing up straight.
Years later, after a summer spent singing along to songs on YouTube, a different choral director invited me to join Select Chorus. I was surprised, but upon reflection, I realized that I improved because I was listening to the music and actively trying to match my voice to the notes. As a younger child, I sang loudly and unabashedly, assuming that my voice would magically do what I wanted it to do. Had someone taught me that singing was a skill to work on, rather than something you either were or weren’t good at, I might have learned sooner.
Of course, I still have much to learn about singing and music in general, but the experience taught me that I could get better at almost anything if I tried hard enough. I feel that if more children were taught that everything requires work and that aptitude is not a given, perhaps they would have better self-esteem as well as a wider range of skills from which to pick their passions and their futures.
To call excellence “talent” is also to discount any hard work the person has done to achieve excellence. It suggests that the person was automatically that good and did nothing to improve their skills. This happens often with celebrities. When the media talks about them, they say that they are “talented” at what they do while giving little to no credit towards the work that they have done.
Take Benedict Cumberbatch, for example. Among many other things, he works special rhythm into every character he plays. It is downright Shakespearean and is always an intellectual pleasure to watch. Perhaps he does this naturally; however, I lay my bets that he has spent a lot of time over the years honing this skill and puts effort into finding the particular rhythm of each character he plays. Of course I am not denying that he is talented or has the aptitude for acting, but to boil everything he does down to talent is to discount any work that he has done to achieve and maintain his level of excellence.
In conclusion, “talent” is a damaging word. It suggests that if you are not already good at something, you will never be. This can keep children from working to improve their skills and narrow their choices later in life. It also discounts the hard work that so-called “talented” individuals have done to achieve excellence. As a society, we must look for the hard work instead of assuming that excellence comes naturally.
