Questions about issues in the news for students 13 and older.
We’ve all heard that hard work is the key to success. But a
recent study found that the “profoundly gifted” still have an
edge over peers who have less natural talent but are perhaps
more dedicated to improving their skills. Have you experienced
the power of talent over hard work? Or have you found that
success comes to the person willing to put in the most time and
effort to achieve it? In the Sunday Review piece “Sorry,
Strivers: Talent Matters,” David Z. Hambrick and Elizabeth J.
Meinz describe this study, along with their own research
findings that support the idea that talent, not dedication, is
the ultimate predictor of success: Exhibit A is a landmark study
of intellectually precocious youths directed by the Vanderbilt
University researchers David Lubinski and Camilla Benbow. They
and their colleagues tracked the educational and occupational
accomplishments of more than 2,000 people who as part of a youth
talent search scored in the top 1 pe