You got talent!

With talent shows on every television channel, and with auditions abounding in the big cities and towns, it's easy to jump to a conclusion - convinced that all people now have a fair chance of getting to show off their various talents. But most never get as far as to appear in front of a panel of judges.

Which is of no great concern to me personally. What does concern me as a professional pedagogue, though, is that here in Norway, with a population of a mere 4.7 million, our educational system is almost exclusively geared towards rewarding children and adolescents who exhibit academic aptitude and skills. It's not that we're consciously ignoring all other forms of talents and intelligence, we're just not placing a big enough premium on them. And thus our communities lose the rewards we could have reaped had we, in the functions of teacher, parent, mentor etc., invested our time and gifts in helping children to detect and hone their obvious or concealed talents in the fields of music, design, or literature, to name but a few.

Because I am a firm believer in what I consider to be a fundamental truth concerning each and every human being: we have all got talent. You have got talent. I have got it, too. Why is it then that so many of us while out the entire length of our lives feeling more or less unfulfilled, not by far attaining to the full potential of the talents we possess?

Being no oracle, I cannot boast any particular insight as to why this is so, but I've got a few qualified guesses that I'd like to publish:

1.  A good many children exhibit talent at an early age, but as the fact dawns on them that it takes exceptional commitment and unbreakable tenacity to reach the goal they innocently fantasize about, they rapidly lose heart and interest in their pursuits, opting instead for the far more convenient and more readily accessible quick-fix: instant satisfaction in the form of entertainment prepared for them by others.

2. With their selfish agendas and perennial lack of time to be spent in the company of their progeny, many parents never truly detect the fact that their children possess a gift that in itself deserves the attention, the efforts and the money needed to bring it to fruition and full bloom. If you don't know your child, because you're so busy indulging your hobbies and interests, how can you possibly contribute anything in the way of assistance and guidance, eventually to witness you son or daughter reaching the potential you discovered all those years ago?

3. In Norway you risk being viewed with definite, utter suspicion and even revulsion if you brag openly about your talent. It seems that decades of the combined influence of socialist egalitarian ideals and the toxic insistence on concealing even the slightest ray of brilliance, have permeated our national psyche (if there is one) to the point that we punish, rather than encourage, people who pursue excellence in their fields of work. Thus there are very few colleges or universities offering human arts programmes that are openly dedicated to training their students to reach global standards of excellence.

4. In Christian circles, many a talent has been stifled or suffocated in an atmosphere fuelled by misguided prejudice and bigotry. This is particularly true here in Norway where churches and fellowships still insist on their teens abiding by a deeply rooted suspicion and enmity towards popular forms of human creativity. Not that many years ago, a private Christian secondary school applied to the educational authorities for permission to exempt their students from dance classes. It's astonishing to note that the wonderful art of dance is currently despised, excluded from curriculi because it's viewed as sinful to the core.

On a final note: many talents never surface just because reaching excellence is so costly in terms of time and effort. I know that firsthand. That's why I'm busy writing just now. I desire to improve my writing skills each time I sit down in  front of my computer. Writing brings me satisfaction, purely and simply because I can rest after having completed a text, knowing that I have made use of my talent to produce something others can enjoy as well.