Essay Prompt:
When someone achieves greatness in any field—such as the arts, science, politics, or business—that person’s achievements are more important than any of his or her personal faults.

Student response:1

When individuals attain greatness, their achievements are more important than their personal faults. While historians should not whitewash the personal foibles of great individuals, the impact that these mortals have had in their fields should tower over any personality defects. To focus on the personal weaknesses of great individuals is to miss the importance of their achievements.
The course of human history is decorated with individuals able to rise above their peers and reach the zenith in their fields. These individuals are often the subject of intense scrutiny from contemporaneous skeptics and later historians. But no one can lead an exemplary private life all the time; no human being is able to withstand such surveillance and historical scrutiny without personal faults coming to light. Great individuals are no exception. However, it is misguided to focus on their personal faults rather than their achievements. To do so is to miss the importance of their work, without which our culture would be worse off.
For example, Abraham Lincoln was arguably one of the greatest Presidents the United States has ever had. He managed to bring the country through a substantial revolution and to end slavery despite powerful economic and social forces working against him day and night. However, Lincoln was not a saint. He was moody and prone to depressive funks that disrupted his family life and slowly eroded his marriage. These personal faults did not reduce his success as a President. While we do not have to ignore questions about whether he was a depressive, we also should not consider them an important part of his political heritage. In contrast, many people criticize Lincoln’s decision to suspend the right of habeas corpus. This (presumed) failing is not personal in nature, but relates directly to Lincoln’s work in his field. Criticisms of this sort are entirely relevant, whereas personal criticisms are not.
Another example of a great individual dogged by criticism of his personal conduct is Albert Einstein. Einstein developed a number of the most important theories in modern physics, including an explanation of the photoelectric effect, an explanation of Brownian motion, special and general relativity, and Bose-Einstein quantum statistics. Each one of these theories would have been considered a great life’s work for a scientist; for one man to contribute this much is remarkable. However, Einstein also had life-long problems with infidelity. The fact that he cheated on his wife is in no way relevant to his accomplishments in the field of physics, and indeed most references to Einstein properly ignore it. To focus attention on the faults of his personal life is to obscure the impact he made on history.
Great individuals have personal faults, as all human beings do. Yet it is incorrect to assert that these faults detract from those individuals’ accomplishments. We are better able to appreciate the gravity of great accomplishments when we are not burying our heads in the sand, in search of personal failings.

Student response:2

In general, this argument is correct. Arts, sciences, politics, and business are very important to our culture and achievements made there are more important than personal faults. The positive will outweigh the negative, inevitably. Most people do not go down in textbooks, for example, for their personal mistakes. Instead for making discoveries, starting a company, or when people are elected to office. Yes, it is true that personal faults can have big effects. For example when Bill Clinton had an affair, his impeachment trial took up valuable time and he went against America’s trust. But normally this isn’t the case.
Their are many times when personal faults should be less important. For example, think of the people whose achievements are so crucial to the arts. These people aren’t perfect. To name one tragic example, Michael Jackson. There were many times when people wondered is this woman insane? For example: he hung his baby over a balcony and people called him a sexually offensive. Michael Jackson to many people was not the ideal model citizen. When he died some people talked only about his faults. But most people, for example at his funeral concert, were truly upset because of the great strides he made, especially for African-American musicians. He truly opened many doors.

Isn’t it often the case that people want to look at politician’s faults? For example, when the presidential candidate John Edwards had an affair and a baby with a woman, it was always in the tabloids. People weren’t thinking about politics, or the fact that he could have been president, only about his mistake. And yet more likely than not that affair won’t be in textbooks in years to come. Instead the fact that John Edwards lost in the presidential race will probably appear. However, in the end John Edwards probably isn’t the most important politician ever, so his personal faults and greatness in his field might be of equal importance. For someone like Bill Clinton who has achieved so much, though, even big personal faults are not as important as greatness.
Overall, I agree with this argument. Although there are cases that aren’t clear-cut, more often than not when someone achieves greatness in their field, that should be the most important factor. Personal faults are not important to future generations. Greatness is their legacy.