Artistic or Intelligent?

[Motokid]

My oldest daughter goes to a special performing arts school in our state. The school put on a major performance last week into the weekend. Six shows in 4 days. Very impressive, and I felt like I was walking through the movie Fame everytime I dropped her off and picked her up from rehearsals and performances. I was very impressed with the level of artistic ability that the kids in my stinky little state possess. Dancing, singing, and musical instruments along with some dramatic performances.

Got me to thinking....

If you could program your next child's talents and abilities but you had to chose between having the scales of those talents falling more towards the artisitic, or the intellectual side of the spectrum, which would you chose?

No wussing out here either...you can't say you would prefer a balanced mix between the two. If the choice was above average intelligence, or above average ability to do something artisitic which would you chose for your child?

Straight A's and honor roll, or the star of the school's performances in some field of the arts?

 

[SFG75]

Straight A's and honor roll, or the star of the school's performances in some field of the arts?

Awesome topic Moto!. I would be in favor of a school that best fits his talents. I wouldn't hesitate to favor a specialized school(based on the arts, etc) over one that was just about academics. Then again, I don't know of a school that is just strictly about academics and that offers no extra-curricular activities. With that being said, intelligence is not just book smarts, Howard Gardner researched on that and found that there are many forms of intelligence.

 

[Stewart]

What would an Inspector Gadget kind of body come under? i fink dat wood b, like, soooooooooo kewl!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Motokid]

Awesome topic Moto!. I would be in favor of a school that best fits his talents. I wouldn't hesitate to favor a specialized school(based on the arts, etc) over one that was just about academics. Then again, I don't know of a school that is just strictly about academics and that offers no extra-curricular activities. With that being said, intelligence is not just book smarts, Howard Gardner researched on that and found that there are many forms of intelligence.

Way to completely avoid answering the question....

 

[ruby]

My youngest will never be the bightest star in the sky for intelligence
But her singing voice is second to none,shes a very talented singer and performer.

And with the help she gets at school from her teachers she will go far,shes already singing solo and shes only 12

 

[SFG75]

What would an Inspector Gadget kind of body come under? i fink dat wood b, like, soooooooooo kewl!!!!!!!!!!!

It would be bodily-kinesthetic, so perhaps a performance art school would be best in that case. Yeah, we should just close Juliard and other schools-it's best just to have the same curriculum for everyone.

 

[SFG75]

Way to completely avoid answering the question....

Specialized over academic



Though for debate's sake--aren't extra-curricular activities a part of the whole experience? Yale and Harvard don't have football or gymnastics teams?

 

[Motokid]

Geez....leave it to you to make this more difficult than intended.....

Would you rather your kid could play guitar like Eddie Van Halen, or score 1600 on the SAT's and get a doctorate in Genetic Engineering?

Sing like Pavorati (spelling?) or think like Einstein?


Paint like Michaelangelo (spelling again?) or think like Warren Buffet?

This isn't that hard.

K.I.S.S. (keep it simple stupid)

 

[abecedarian]

I guess I'd prefer an artisticly talented child..not that we ever have a choice in the matter. I've always thought a genius would be most difficult to raise.Even average intelligence can get a person pretty far, if environmental variables are good.

 

[Motokid]

Yale and Harvard don't have football or gymnastics teams?

Yale Football

Harvard Football

You are right about one thing...they don't have gymnastics at Yale.

Sports they have at Yale:

Baseball
M Basketball
W Basketball
M Crew - Heavy
M Crew - Light
W Crew
M Cross Country
W Cross Country
Fencing
Field Hockey
Football
M Golf
W Golf
W Gymnastics
M Ice Hockey
W Ice Hockey
M Lacrosse
W Lacrosse
Sailing
Softball
M Soccer
W Soccer
M Squash
W Squash
M Swimming
W Swimming
M Tennis
W Tennis
M Track
W Track
W Volleyball

 

[Sergo]

Geez....leave it to you to make this more difficult than intended.....

Would you rather your kid could play guitar like Eddie Van Halen, or score 1600 on the SAT's and get a doctorate in Genetic Engineering?

Sing like Pavorati (spelling?) or think like Einstein?


Paint like Michaelangelo (spelling again?) or think like Warren Buffet?

This isn't that hard.

K.I.S.S. (keep it simple stupid)

Oh... Maybe, just maybe, to sing well is not too hard, if one has all the qualities a singer needs to perform well.
But to paint, or to make sculptures - what made Mr. Buonarroti a well-known artist - takes much more than just a powerful hand and a good eye.
So, I do not think a very good artist could be a poor thinker.
To make a thing other people admire, and, that's important, not a copy, but an original thing, that nobody has thought of before, one need to be a genius.

 

[Motokid]

not that we ever have a choice in the matter.

That's exactly the point of this thread...

I started it with "If you could program your next child's talents and abilities..."

that's a big "if" isn't it?

 

[abecedarian]

Oh... Maybe, just maybe, to sing well is not too hard, if one has all the qualities a singer needs to perform well.
But to paint, or to make sculptures - what made Mr. Buonarroti a well-known artist - takes much more than just a powerful hand and a good eye.
So, I do not think a very good artist could be a poor thinker.
To make a thing other people admire, and, that's important, not a copy, but an original thing, that nobody has thought of before, one need to be a genius.

Very true! Read about Lenardo Da Vinci sometime, just for inspiration. His drawings were one of his ways of taking notes for his work. I think I understand the reasoning behind Moto's question, but to take music as an example, music is a mathematical skill, and often people with great abilities in music, are good at math as well. So it is difficult to say in which discipline one would prefer talent. Many scientific elements are used in Fine Arts..so what sort of genius would I want to raise? Whatever I'm given

 

[Motokid]

Sergo, I used to play in a band in my younger days. We had a girl singer who on a regular basis could make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up with her power, grace, range, and ability to sing certain songs. I've had the same experiences with some guitar players and other musicians.

I've never looked at a sculpture or painting and had the same experience. It's all a matter of personal taste I'm sure.

I would never say singing is less of an art than painting, or sculpting, or instrument playing, or acting, or dancing. Even with beyond natural talents there's still lots of very hard work that must go into refining talent.

 

[abecedarian]

What I want is a decoder ring for each child, so I can know from birth, which way my child's natural "bent" is slanted so I can avoid stupid and costly mistakes as he or she grows up..Art lessons or music lessons? Dance or Athletics..some of us can't afford it all and I'm not convinced I should have to do it all..

 

[Doug Johnson]

If you could program your next child's talents

I've very fond of the old fashioned way of making babies. I'd stick with the tried and true method and leave the programming to someone else.

 

[Motokid]

I've very fond of the old fashioned way of making babies. I'd stick with the tried and true method and leave the programming to someone else.

chicken

 

[muggle]

I can't answer the question as it applies to my children or grandchildren. However, if it was for myself, there would be no question. I would take having talent playing the Fiddle over anything else, except having a sponsor for Marybeth who has talent but cannot compete due to lack of big $$$$$.

 

[cajunmama]

They both have thier pros and cons. High intelligence does not mean high ambition. You can easily have a very smart underachiever. And you can have a talented artist whose talent goes unused. My sisters kids are all brainiacs, but there is a difference. Her son is athletic as well, so fits in with that crowd and doesn't recieve the merciless teasing his highly intelligent sister recieves. In our society today, few intellectual geniuses are revered as near-gods, while many athletes, singers and movie stars are. There is much more social pressure among adolescents to be athletic or artistic than there is to be smart. It is mostly when we get to be adults and (most of us) are capable of thinking for ourselves that we see the value in intelligence. I really don't know which one I would want. Maybe neither, just a plain old average kid.

 

[SFG75]

Geez....leave it to you to make this more difficult than intended.....

Would you rather your kid could play guitar like Eddie Van Halen, or score 1600 on the SAT's and get a doctorate in Genetic Engineering?

Sing like Pavorati (spelling?) or think like Einstein?


Paint like Michaelangelo (spelling again?) or think like Warren Buffet?

This isn't that hard.

K.I.S.S. (keep it simple stupid)

I'd have them go for wherever their talent was, forget the SAT.