Ugh

Society should identify those children who have special talents and provide training for them at an early age to develop their talents.

Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the recommendation and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, describe specific circumstances in which adopting the recommendation would or would not be advantageous and explain how these examples shape your position.

Major
What or who is society?  The term 'society' is ambiguous.  The result will vary depending on who we designate as responsible for identifying special talents in children and providing training for them.

What are special talents?  Who we train will depend on what we take to be a special talent.

Minor
What sort of training will be provided?

What good could result from the proposal?

There may be an increase in the number of young experts.  An increase in the number of young experts is desirable because there may be problems that require diligent work over a life time.  Young experts would have a longer time to work on these pressing problems.

This is an emotional topic because it seems to grant special privilege to select people.  But, it does not say that some children will not be selected for training.  It may turn out to be the case that all children possess unique talents, and that society will be burdened with keeping its promise to provide special training to all children.  The implication may be that society ought to select those AND ONLY THOSE children that have special talents and provide them with training; but it is not clear that this implication was intended in the original meaning of the statement.

I am suppose to select examples that show how the proposal will be advantageous or disadvantageous.  
Society should identify those children who have special talents and should provide training for them at an early age to develop their talents.

Key terms
Society
Identify
Special talents
provide training

Society could use either standardized tests or naturalistic observations by teachers and parents or both in order to identify special talents in children.  The problem with standardized tests is that they are predictable and since they are predictable, they can be manipulated, gamed and prepared for by anyone who possesses adequate resources.  Therefore, insofar as the test is a stepping stone to a good, it will typically be only those with the resources that gain access to the good that lay behind the test.  On the other hand, naturalistic observations by parents and teachers are subject to prejudice and bias.  Every parent wants the best for their child, and teacher's typically only observe the child in one particular setting.  Therefore, neither parent nor teacher observation is ground alone for recommending a child for special training based on an identification of special talent.  Some balanced combination of naturalistic observation and standardized testing may alleviate the defects of the methods of identifying special talents on their own.

Starts....

Starts....

Society should not identify those children who have special talents and should not provide training for them at an early age to develop their talents.

Describe specific circumstances in which adopting the recommendation would or would not be advantageous and explain how these examples shape your position

My mother attempted to identify talents that she saw in me as a child.  At one time, she saw a sportsman.  She enlisted in me basketball, football, indoor soccer, ice hockey and little league baseball.  By far, I was the worst at baseball.  Although, as an honorable mention, my football skills may have contributed to my teams three year losing streak.  Anyway, I remember the baseball team coach was nice enough to appease my mother by placing me in the right outfield.  It was the outfield for losers, the solitary solipsistic outfield since very few batters were left handed and therefore very few balls were hit into the right field.  I will never forget the game that ended my little league baseball career.  On a hot summer afternoon, I stood in the dusty right field, glove in hand, drifting away into a fantasy world of swimming in lakes and sweet italian ice.  The sun was glaring, and the umpire whistle blaring.  The sound of the parental bleachers woke me, "Danny, Danny, catch it, catch it, the ball, the ball! filled my aural space of fantasy.  I searched through the sky for that effigy of American past time; my panic intensified.  Still, the screams and no ball.  And then, I experienced the awakening.  Parents ought not choose sports for their children.  When parents choose sports for their children, their children are struck between the eyes with an odd fly ball to the left out field, the outfield for solitude; their intrinsic right to a silent period of fantasy and dream is stifled.  Later in life, my mother caught on to my lack of sportsmanship.  She enrolled me in art classes.  But, the damage was already done, the association formed: performance was anxiety provoking, and it wouldn't be until a quarter of a century later, after years of self sought talk therapy that I would be able to pursue my own past time.  The problem with the statement is that it gives no credit to what children want for themselves.  It ignores their voice, and their say in their future.  No doubt adults ought to identify special talents and provide support for those burgeoning abilities in children, but the problem is that there is no consensus as to what constitutes a "special talent" or even the best method for edifying that talent.  Children have many special talents.  I did not have a talent at baseball, but my mother saw that talent in me.  The result was a disaster.  Some people might object that more objective perspective may be able to identify a "special talent".  In that case, they might advocate for several opinions and move toward specialized testing.  But, children are already burdened with the testing they have in regular school to learn reading and writing and mathematics.  Further standardized testing simply robs children of their exploratory childhood.  Some explore in silence, and some explore openly.  As adults, we ought to respect those differences, and rather than seek to identify special talents, we ought to recognize special talents and encourage even more of those talents to grow by providing catholic support and training.

WHY CAN'T I WRITE A COHERENT PEICE!