<p>Prompt: Should people be judged by their potential rather than by their experience and achievements? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.</p>
<p>Schools across the United States have special programs instituted for children with gifted minds. It is by these programs that the young children are allowed to develop into brilliant young adults who go on to accomplish great things – all with support and encouragement along the way. Hence, it is through potential, not just experience and achievement that people should be judged by. This statement can be further supported by three examples with characters of potential without an impressive past.</p>
<p>In the book Lords of Discipline by Pat Conroy, one of the plots revolves around the story of a young black boy, Tom, who is the first African American to go to a Southern Military Institute. He shows no exemplary past and he does not even elucidate on his past experiences of high school or other places he could have faced discrimination. Even as a gang of white students, notoriously known as the secretive “Ten”, attempt to get him expelled from the institute, Will, a white senior, continues to act as a mentor to Tom. Will does this because he sees potential in Tom – he sees that Tom has the ability to be an honorable graduate from the Military Institute just as much as the other white cadets do. This exemplifies that people should not be judged on the experiences of the past, or the lack of, but rather what lies in the future for them in which their potential can guide them through.</p>
<p>The story of Einstein’s childhood is one that shows that the ignorance of potential is a mistake. In the German school that Einstein attended as a child, teachers reprimanded him for attempting to question the information being taught from textbooks. These teachers could have been a setback for the brilliant genius at such a young age, yet there were in fact people who saw the potential in Einstein. One such person was a graduate student whom Einstein’s family hosted for dinner on Thursday nights. The grad student saw the intelligence in Einstein’s mind and lent him several advanced math books which led Einstein to learn geometry and even calculus at a very young age. However, once again, Einstein’s childhood shows that people should focus on potential rather than experiences and achievement.</p>
<p>Lastly, the example of Mary Brown of the short story Mary displays potential and possibility as more valuable qualities than achievement. Mary is born blind at birth and her family has given up hope of her ever achieving a normal lifestyle. Yet, Mary is a young girl full of compassion and proves that one does not need his or her eyes to see clearly. She eventually goes on to work as a nurse with war veterans with encouragement of her friend Katherine who sees the potential in Mary to hold an independent life.</p>
<p>Through the examples of Will and Tom in Lords of Discipline, Albert Einstein, and Mary Brown, it is evident that potential is the future of all, not necessarily achievement and experience. Life is full of surprises and turns, and potential guides people through it successfully, not the height of the past.</p>