Sometime ago, I was sitting quietly in a park in a country in southern Europe. It was holiday “Magdalena“. Three boys likely 9 -11 years old walked up to me and asked for permission to set up a high-intensity loud knockout fireworks at the park which was quiet at that moment. In one of the boys’ words, he said: we ask to know that this “will not bother you“. I was amazed. A foreigner and a non-native giving permission to sons of the locals? I admired their politeness, inclusivity and consideration. I saw a strong character in action!
Anyone who has observed any form of a talented person would see there is something similar in all forms of expression of talents. You see the capacity, the hunger for growth and the strength clothed with ambition, humility or pride. That is where character education is tested.
How successful a talent becomes would depend on exposure, chances and opportunities available. When a talent goes out to interact with the social and the commercial communities, it requires to show quality through verbal and non verbal ways. No act of pretense is perfect to cover the integrity of a character when it is tested through praise or criticism. Strong characters appear as a quality of consistency, persistence, reliability, consideration for others among other pro-social attributes while the opposite is being spoilt or selfish, laziness, cowardly, dishonesty and similar attributes that cause harassment and distress to others.
Like a brilliant innovator would need social capital which is a network of people that could lead to success, a talented musician looks forward to opportunities and chances to perform on big stages. When the hopes are eventually fulfilled, it is the integrity and competence that carries that talent into a future of sustained or short-lived career. When the moment of opportunity arrives, character is the decisive quality.
While a strong moral fiber manifest as willingness and openness to teachability, pride which often appears as confidence, leads in the direction of success or failure. Put it that character is like the skeletal or internal framework that supports a talent as it walks the complex paths. It determines how strong a talent stands in the face of resistance. While talent could open doors, showing a strong personality determines who gets invited back in, who builds legacies, and who thrives or who fades.
How do you handle praise or criticism? How do you approach viewpoints that differ from yours? For school children, the character they show in school says a thing or more about their families and personalities. It is the duty of schools to administer character education as it is the responsibility of families to raise people with a strong character.
As with the boys in southern Spain, whose character modelled their family values, the family and the education system must emphasize teaching accountability, gratitude, encouraging persistence without a sense of entitlement, and fostering teachability. With character education, a flash of brilliance can become an enduring success.
While talent alone rarely builds legacies, the person behind the talent handles opportunities with either grace or disgrace, learns from failures and stays reliable.
By: Byke Freeborn |X/Twitter: @bykefreeborn