Importance of nurturing geniuses:
- Extremely gifted individuals in society have more importance than the rest of the society in their influence, and in most of the countries, talents and abilities of these exceptionally talented young people are recognized very early. These talents should be nurtured so that they can help mankind for a better living.
- When they will be supported in the right way, these individuals go on to perform much better than many other colleagues of their age in many different fields, for example, science and mathematics.
The technological and industrial revolution and betterment of Mankind can only be possible when knowledge and education are considered a priority for society.
Low and middle-income countries such as India does not understand the priority of developing skills of these gifted individuals and support them at an early age, due to which these exceptionally talented young students are not able to perform the way they should and this, in turn, affects the advancement of scientific progress.
They do not get the appropriate amount of support, and in many cases, they are not even taken seriously to pursue scientific careers.
For example, International competitions like Maths and Science Olympiads are a major and an important door to showcase talents. If these young talented students are nurtured properly, they can do well in Olympiads and in long term achievements like publications and other academic prizes. On average, a science or maths Olympiad winner from a low-income country produces 40% fewer research papers and patents than an Olympiad from good income country where they are taken seriously and are given priority.
If countries like India could develop an education system and methods to provide the right support to these young students, then they can make a difference and could increase global knowledge and help the world for scientific progress. It is seen that most of the Olympiad winners are Nobel Prize and Fields Medal, winners. Right education advances knowledge frontier which benefits mankind, but this takes time and hence we should try to take the first step now by initiating to make better policies and raising fellowships which will attract other potential candidates.
Various programs should be developed to attract children to science and make them interested. Schools and universities of developed countries should share methods of teaching and training students to develop countries.
The major difference between European countries like Poland and France and middle-income countries like India is European countries tries to make students develop an interest in Science from a very early age through popular science programs in universities and research institutes unlike in India, child fights with poverty and education system. This has to change.
For Further Reading:
- Experts Are Born, Then Made: Combining Prospective and Retrospective Longitudinal Data Shows That Cognitive Ability Matters. Jonathan Wai in Intelligence, Vol. 45, pages 74-80; July-August 2014.
- How to Raise a Genius: Lessons from a 45-Year Study of Supersmart Children, Tom Clynes, Nature magazine on September 7, 2016.
- To Nurture Genius, Improve Gifted Education, Rena F. Subotnik, Paula Olszewski-Kubilius, Frank C. Worrell.
- Invisible Geniuses: Could the Knowledge Frontier Advance Faster ?, Ruchir Agarwal, Patrick Gaule, December 7, 2018.
Rajeev Singh is a 1st-year Ph.D. Research Fellow at Institute of Nuclear Physics Polish Academy of Sciences, Krakow Poland.
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