Dreams matter

And not only are some people more talented than others, but people also have talents in different areas. Yet if all children are taught the same things in the same way, only some will have a chance to excel. The UK’s one- size-fits-all school system, with a national curriculum intended to minimise inequalities of opportunity, may inadvertently be favouring a subset of children. Almost all  the psychologists and development experts contacted by New Scientist favour a school system that caters for a broader range of talents and interests, and focuses less on measures and targets. “Not every student is the same, so multiple options are needed,” says Ericsson. Think  of it this way: the more niches there are in a garden – sunny, shady, damp and so on – the wider the range of plants that can thrive there. Schools should encourage deep, personal learning in more narrow subject areas, and  let children develop at their own rate, says Kaufman. Plenty of people bloom late, particularly in the arts and sciences, which demand a range of social and cognitive skills, ALEX WEBB/MAGNUM he says. “It might take someone a long time to overcome some hurdles, and then eventually they break through to greatness.” What doesn’t help, say the experts, is introducing yet more standardised tests, as the UK is doing. While the US system is less centralised, it, too, is dominated by standardised testing. “Listen to children’s dreams, and encourage them, no matter  their test scores or prior background. Reward effort, and the process, not the standardised academic outcome,” Kaufman advises. Encourage dreaming? That may not seem like a recipe for success to some, but it is perhaps the most important factor of all.  US psychologist Ellis Paul Torrance followed the lives of several hundred creative highachievers from high school into middle age, among them academics, writers, inventors, teachers, consultants, business executives  and a song-writer. He noticed that it  wasn’t scholastic or technical abilities or achievements at school that set them apart, but characteristics such as having a sense of purpose, the courage to be creative, delighting in deep thinking and feeling comfortable in  a minority of one. Most important of all, he thought, was to “fall in love with a dream”, preferably at a young age, and then pursue  it with intensity. Torrance called his group of high-fliers “beyonders”. He reckoned their accomplishments went beyond anything  that standard quantitative tests could have predicted – and beyond anyone’s wildest dreams but their own.  ■