THE CONUNDRUMS OF SUCCESS - the Gifted Development Center

question which would have seemed unthinkable to many in the not-so-distant past - andperhaps still does today! -, namely :Can we influence the ethics and morality of future industrial and political leadersso that they place gross national happiness on an equal or higher scale of valuesthan gross national product? (Renzulli, 2002, p.2).Noting that we have learned much about what leads to high accomplishment in manyfields, he points out that we have not, however, acquired the same understanding of thosestrengths that lead to the emergence of remarkable human beings like Nelson Mandela,Rachel Carson and Mother Theresa who have “focused their talents on bringing aboutchanges directed toward making the lives of all people better” (2002, p.4). Clearly wewill need such an understanding if we are to bring about the social transformationRenzulli sees as so crucial to our human future.In response to this enormous challenge, Renzulli has proposed a set of interrelatedbehaviours or “co-cognitive traits” which he believes lie behind the motivation of thosewho commit themselves to working for social change, and has set up a major researchproject, the Houndstooth Project, designed to test and refine these definitions and toexplore the ways in which we as educators may be able to encourage and nurture them.As the graphic shows, those traits include optimism, courage, romance with a topic ordiscipline, sensitivity to human concerns, physical and mental energy, and vision or senseof destiny, and you will note that Renzulli sees the possession and exercise of these19