Mundanity Of Excellence Summary

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We see that in the reading “Mundanity of Excellence,” by Daniel F Chambliss, the focus is on nature of excellence as it pertains to Olympic swimming. Mr. Chambliss supplies the reader with his experience and sociological approach to his theory that “talent is useless.” I will now provide you with a brief commentary on how sociology relates to developing human talent. It is perceived that one’s natural goal is to accomplish perfection in a “talent” or gift. This ranges from numerous types of talents whether it is sports, entertainment, acting, or even a technical skill. In a sociologist way of thinking we realize that excellence is not only achieved by quantitative or qualitative improvements, it encompasses several factors. I want to …show more content…

Based on these three perspectives the social role of organizations allows us to see that human talent applied to levels of excellence is discriminatory in nature. Being in a certain area may present more opportunities for an individual to receive additional training than another social group based on location. This in turn limits a social group organization from the ability to achieve excellence as it pertains to a sport or even a non-sport. Who’s to say that that a local YMCA first place swimmer in a rural area with no exposure other than local recognition cannot reach the level of excellence as a city league first place swimmer with exposures to represent a city or state. Each approach is different depending on many factors such as mentioned above. The overall outcome is how we reach the level of excellence rather than human talent. Implementation of these studies show that social circumstances play a key factor in the social aspect of excellence to which society has scaled down to

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