₦airaland Forum

Oliviaarims:
Same.

Shynaboy1:
Boss, I'm patiently waiting. Can I knw the participants of AAUA?

Aminat508:

tosyne2much:
*Let's have Yoyo Bitters advert *

darrytoz:
Good day to the esteemed judges, erudite coordinators, fellow debaters, and the informed spectators. I am Darrytoz, the second speaker of the polytechnic ibadan. I am here to speak on the motion ''geniuses are made not born''.

GENIUS:an exceptionally intelligent person or one with exceptional skill in a particular area of activity.

"Genius are made, not born'', this encouraging saying has driven a great number of parents to explore their children's potential by all educational means. Books like The Da Vinci curse by Leonardo Lospernato do a good job of summing up a problem of our time that anyone striving to be a universal genius will inevitably fail.
Because today, unlike in Da Vinci's time, there is so much competition out there in every field that only people who devote themselves to one subject are successful. Anyone who wants to be a professional high flyer, the 'father of the year', a star violinist, a globetrotter and an art connoisseur all at once should either rethink his priorities or feel satisfied about being incredibly mediocre in each of these fields. After all, it is rare for a genius to be an all-rounder.

Alleged geniuses like Mozart, Geoethe and Picasso are not famous the world over for their unique inborn gifts, they were simply lucky enough to be born with a certain amount of talent that they could then activate with a whole lot of hard work and dedication. Anyone who wants to emulate a genius should take note of the fact that neither Mozart nor Einstein changed his profession every couple of years.
One reason why Steve Jobs was so successful was that he put all his energy into one thing and in the process sacrificed his chance of ever winning the 'father of the year' award. It is not to say that his path does not have potholes, traffic and detours, but instead that only people who experiment without fear of failure and accept that they can learn from it are bound to produce great things.
Over 100 years ago, Napoleon Hill asked himself whether the success of outstanding personalities could be explained by a formula. Did they all use the same toothpaste? Did they all follow the same traveling priest? Hill's answer which he used as as the basis for his book ''Think and Grow Rich'', was far more rudimentary for him, success and wealth were the consequence of having a clear goal and a burning desire to achieve it. And so, we can reinforce what we already knew about Mozart, Einstein and Jobs: they all worked hard and were ready to accept mistakes and failures.

Despite the widely-held belief that geniuses are all child prodigies, a race apart from ordinary mortals, a British psychologist claimed that the secret of their success lay more in hard work than in any innate intellectual gifts.
Genuine creative achievements depend more on perseverance over the long haul than on prodigrous childhood skills. We cannot all be geniuses but we can learn from them. What makes geniuses special is their long-term commitment. They struggle very hard and they keep on persisting. They enjoy their work. They excel at concentrating and persevering. Their efforts are focused, and all geniuses have a firm sense of direction. Like everybody else, even the greatest minds that have ever existed have had to struggle and strive to achieve their goals.

In conclusion, people can only truly be geniuses or achieve success if they work hard and consciously choose certain options over others. Veering off the paths of mediocrity and taking drastic measures. Becoming a genius is both a choice, that is within everyone's reach, and a difficult journey that one has to necessarily undertake (a quest that challenges you to self-actualize).
Genius become what they want to and manifest what their hidden potentialities are to state otherwise or to assert that they are either born or made is to continue paying homage to a false dichotomy that has longed outlived its usefulness. Thank you.



References
the-mouse-trap.com
www.dumblittleman.com
viviengg.
www.theguardian.com/uk
www.cewativitypost.com

Abuklaw:
Do genes make the genius? Or is it really true that practice and training determine a genius?

I am using this medium to pay homage to whom it’s due.
The C.E.O of Nairaland, Mr. Seun Osewa,
Organizers of this intellectual event,
Incorruptible and ever-sagacious panel of Judges,
Perspicacious co-debaters,
Members of Nairaland intelligentsia,
Ladies and gentlemen.

Good day, I am abuklaw by moniker, representing Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. The purpose of this write-up is to logically support the topic “Geniuses are born, not made.”

For proper understanding of this subject, there are some terms that need to be expounded. The understanding of the term “Genius,” “Genetic” and “environmental influence is pertinent.

Genius according to American Heritage Dictionary is defined “as a person with an IQ of 140 and higher”

Wikipedia regards a genius “as a person who displays exceptional intellectual ability, creativity, or originality”

Genetic according to Merriam-Webster dictionary mean “relating to or determined by origin, development, or casual antecedents of something.” Or “of, relating to, caused by, or controlled genes.”

While environmental influence can be explained in this context as the training, practise and human interactions that people undergo in the course of their development in life.

Without further ado, the points that succinctly back up the motion that “Geniuses are born, not made” are as follow:

It is unarguably incredible that there is someone in this world that still holds the opinion that irrespective of circumstance of birth, one can become anything in life, as long as one gets adequate training and practice well. The Einsteins, Edisons, Da Vincis, Picassos, Michelangelos, Galileos, Freuds and Mozarts of history were nothing but born Genius. As much as psychologist can say pertaining human intellectual abilities, they can’t till today explain the rationale behind the variation in learning and memory capacity of human being without referring to the hereditary dispositions of individuals. Contrary to John Locke’s assertion that “the mind at birth is like a tabula rasa-blank slate,” Lady gaga in her 2011 album made the bold empirical claim that “we are just born like this.” This means the musician was not born a blank slate but with natural abilities.

Genius is quantitatively and qualitatively different from talent. Talent refers to the ability to perform special kind of work and implies a relatively quick and easy acquisition of a particular skill within a domain while Genius involves originality, creativity, and ability to work and think in areas not previously explored. A genius is a person who comes up with ideas that are achievement model which others admire and imitate. The world would have been a worthless place if some people couldn’t come up with first of its kind invention. These people to a large extent cannot explain the steps that lead to the conception of their idea or how they come about such invention.

It would be absurd to assert that practice or training can make someone achieve in few months what normally takes a decade for an average person to achieve. It is without doubt the innate gifts of an individual that propel such individual to be extraordinary and exceptional in their chosen field. If training or practice could make a genius, it would be extremely difficult if not impossible to pick a football player as the best in the world among the pack of players who receive similar or better training and coaching from competent coaches in the world
.
Howard Gardner identified eight particular types of intelligent. He opined that the genius is born with extraordinary capacities in at least one of these areas of intelligence. A writer possesses linguistic intelligence, a successful footballer possesses kinesthetic intelligence, and a Nobel price holder in science related field possesses a mathematical-logical intelligence e.t.c.

Lending credence to the above, it is noteworthy, that attempt to make a genius will most time end in emotional debacle and psychological disorder. Imagine the disaster if Michael Jackson’s parent had tried to make him a boxer and Muhammad Alli’s father forced him into music. I am aware of the fact that training and practice can improve a person’s ability but it is ultimately biological factors that make a genius among ordinary achievers.

Although special programs attempting to overcome the deficits of people with low intelligent quotient abound, programs targeted at the genius (intellectually gifted) are rare. This is so because of the persistent view that the gifted ought to be able to “make it on their own,” if they can’t, they really weren’t gifted in the first place. (Robinson, 2003, Parke, 2005, sparks, 2007)

On a final note, the recipe of extraordinary achievement which include Intelligence, considerable drive, persistence, perseverance etc. Are to a certain degree genetic. If you’re born “stupid and lazy” forget about earning a Nobel Prize in physics.

Let’s take a look at the below short biography of a person published on page 125 of people weekly magazine in 2003.

“Writing at age 2, Reading at age 3, playing classical music on the piano at age 4 and composing music at age 5. But that is just the start of Sho Yono’s resume. With an IQ measured at 200, he entered Loyola University at the age of 9 and graduated summa cum laude at the age of 12. Then it was off to a joint graduate program in molecular genetics and medicine. He received a PhD at the age of 18, and he is now in medical school. Along the way, he received black belt in taekwondo and played piano on a national radio program. He’s also prone to understatement, saying “it is just fun learning.”

Do you still think Sho Yono was made through training and practice?

REFERENCE:

Parke, B.N (2003) Discovering programs for talent development. Thousand oaks, CA: Corwin press.

People weekly. (2003, June 23) kid doc: He’s no brain surgeon yet but sho yono, 12, is about to start med school. People weekly, 125

Robinson, N.M (2003) two wrong do not make a right: sacrificing the needs of gifted students does not solve the society’s unsolved problems. Journal for the education of the gifted, 26, 251-273

Sparks, S.D (2007, October 2). Foundation: Gifted poor students given short shrift. Education daily, 40, 3.

Valerie Strauss (2012) geniuses born or made?. Retrieved online @ 10:15am on 12:12:2015 @ www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/geniuses-born-or-made/2012/05/28/gJQAkvRhxu-blog.html.

https://www.quora.com/are-geniuses-born-made-or-both

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3_Idiots

American Heritage Dictionary.

Merriam Webster Dictionary

Freemanan:
This boy and agbo iba....

I think say na only romance section be ur territory

tosyne2much:
I think say na only romance section be ur territory

timonski:
And you need to work on your spelling.#IHATEHYPOCRITES

Jarus:
Thankks. But you need to work on your choice of word. Performing his duty of pointing out a candidate's area for improvement doesn't make a judge a "hypocrite", even if he errs himself.

Catalyst4real:
That third judge needs a beating

Aminat508:
why?

Freemanan:
Following... We will talk wella later. Judging some Debaters now...

Fynestboi:
School?

Oliviaarims:
Lol. U, too. Uniben.

Abuklaw:
catalyst4real,I won't go with the idea that the judges are amateur. These people you are eminent personalities and people of proven record when it comes to debate on this platform. Because they didn't bring any analysis of result doesn't warrant their name to be dragged in the mud.

Nairaland isn't paying anybody for the job they are doing. Please give respect to whom it's due.

Fynestboi:
Yea OAUPhilosophy..

alwelldinho:
if the results no wan come, can we just do a voice vote?

Fynestboi:
Ibadan Polytechnic paki? You must be joking Ibadan Polytechnic won the second spot in the last edition...