Talent

In this Parents as Partners talk, Susan Baer gave several book reports. I will share a bit of one with you here. She said if you are only going to read one of these, it should be The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle. Here are my very brief notes based on her notes based on the book. :-)

Talent - not something you are born with, but something you develop.

3 elements common to the lives of all hugely successful people:

Deep practice - 10,000 hours of concentrated effort toward the objective of skill mastery to become an expert in any given field. (e.g. 3 hours a day for 10 years)

Ignition - Person or event which sparks and stokes the passion. Without this, 10,000 hours is not likely to happen.

Master Coaching - Steering development, giving the student what they need at each step of the way.

As a side, I was directed to this book some time ago and shared it on our local homeschool email list like this:

http://thetalentcode.com/explore/ - cool website/book/videos/blog about developing talent! This fellow has visited and studied several "talent hotbeds" to see what they do to grow that talent.

Recent Publications on Talent Shared by Susan Baer

Tip: Peruse any of these books by going to http://books.google.com. Type the title of the book in the Search box.

Colvin, Geoff. Talent is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else. New York: Penguin, 2008.

Coyle, Daniel. The Talent Code: Greatness isn’t Born. It’s Grown. Here’s How. New York: Bantam, 2009.

Dweck, Carol S. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. New York: Random House, 2006.

Dweck, Carol S. “Caution: Praise Can Be Dangerous.” American Educator: Spring 1999. www.sde.ct.gov/sde/lib/sde/pdf/cali/praisespring99.pdf

Gardner, Howard. Five Minds for the Future. Boston: Harvard Business School, 2006.

Gladwell, Malcolm. Outliers: The Story of Success. New York: Little, Brown, 2008.

Levitin, Daniel J. This is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession. New York: Penguin, 2006.

Pink, Daniel H. Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. New York: Penguin, 2009.

Syed, Matthew. Bounce: Mozart, Federer, Picasso, Beckham, and the Science of Success. New York: HarperCollins, 2010.

Tharp, Twyla. The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003.