Posted on 12/29/2008 9:05:44 PM PST by jazusamo
"Outliers" are not politicians who lie even more than other politicians. It is a term used by statisticians to describe some data that are far away from the average-- data on seven-foot women or freezing temperatures in Los Angeles, for example.
"Outliers" is also the title of a very insightful and very readable new book by best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell. The book's subtitle is "The Story of Success." It is a study of the factors behind people who have had spectacular achievements in fields ranging from hockey to computers.
One of the first groups of outliers studied are top-level Canadian hockey players, a wholly disproportionate number of whom were born in the first three months of the year. Moreover, the same pattern was found among top Czech hockey players.
The key factor turned out to be a fixed date-- January 1st in both countries-- for selecting young boys to be placed on special hockey teams that were the elite of their age groups.
Players born in January were the most over-represented among the top hockey players in both countries. As young boys, they would have just missed the selection cut-off for that year and would have had another year to grow before the next selection date.
Obviously a boy born the day after the selection date would be virtually a year older when the next selection date came around, compared to a boy born the day before the selection date, even though they were both officially the "same" age, competing for places on the same elite hockey teams.
That kind of difference in age-- at a very young age-- was a big advantage, in terms of size and physical maturity, among boys in a very physical sport. Being tracked into elite hockey teams, early on, allowed that initial advantage to be parlayed into an ever larger advantage of experience and training with elite teams over the years.
Many other "outliers" in achievement in many other fields likewise came from special backgrounds or special circumstances. These people have been in areas ranging from computers to corporations to residents of one Pennsylvania town with unusually low rates of heart disease, despite having residents whose diets are laden with fat and sugar, who do little exercise and who tend to be obese.
The theme running through this book is that spectacular individual achievements-- outliers-- are not simply a matter of personal merit but come out of a background of special circumstances that enable outstanding individual ability to lead to performances far beyond the norm.
Examples from radically different settings, ranging from the rice paddies of China to Manhattan's lower east side, show the same principle at work among wholly different people in wholly different times and places.
This book is an outstanding achievement in itself, and its readability, insights and imagination make it one of the best books of 2008 or any other year.
It is not easy, however, to share the author's belief that social policies can spread the advantages of some to the population at large. It seems even less likely that empowering politicians to do so will make things better overall than they are in the very imperfect world we currently live in.
This is not to say that nothing can be done. One of the most inspiring chapters in "Outliers" is about a KIPP charter school serving minority students, whose academic performances far exceed those of other minority students, even though these students were selected by lottery, rather than on the basis of ability.
A lot could be done to support and expand such schools. But a crucial factor in the success of the KIPP schools is a commitment by the students and their parents to a demanding educational program. No politician or bureaucrat can create that.
Indeed, politicians and bureaucrats have done much that has had the net effect of spreading attitudes that undermine the prospects of using currently available opportunities.
If enough people read and ponder the implications of "Outliers," perhaps that can help begin the much needed process of turning around current counterproductive attitudes toward education and toward life.
Good question and I’m not going to guess. :-)
I’ve been waiting to read this. Apparently it’s been pretty popular on campus and it’s taken >month for it to rotate down to me. If I can get thru the snow to the library to pick it up, I’ll let y’all know if it’s any good.
I had to read Gladwell’s “The Tipping Point” for a class. He also came and gave a lecture. Interesting guy.
Thanks to you both, sounds like it’s worth reading.
bump
I’ve just finished the book. I was astounded that a New Yorker staffer could write 295 pages while only revealing socialist viewpoints obliquely a couple of times. It is an excellent book. I plan to read his earlier works.
I’m an outlier.
I didn’t start first grade till I was just three months shy of turning 7.
I also didn’t speak much English having arrived in America the summer before starting school. Nor had I had any preschool or kindergarten attendance.
School studies and its regimen came effortlessly for me while younger kids struggled.
Later, as a teacher myself, I have noticed this outlier effect again and again.
Simply put, children start school at too early an age.
Allowing maturational development is preferable to the frustrating pressures of early academics. Montessori and Piaget were correct. Certain intellectual understanding must be preceded by maturational growth.
I . . . didn’t speak much English having arrived in America the summer before starting school. Nor had I had any preschool or kindergarten attendance . . . [but] I didn’t start first grade till I was just three months shy of turning 7 . . .Players born in January were the most over-represented among the top hockey players in both countries. As young boys, they would have just missed the selection cut-off for that year and would have had another year to grow before the next selection date.Obviously a boy born the day after the selection date would be virtually a year older when the next selection date came around, compared to a boy born the day before the selection date, even though they were both officially the "same" age, competing for places on the same elite hockey teams.
That kind of difference in age-- at a very young age-- was a big advantage, in terms of size and physical maturity, among boys in a very physical sport. Being tracked into elite hockey teams, early on, allowed that initial advantage to be parlayed into an ever larger advantage of experience and training with elite teams over the years.
[So] I’m an outlier. . . . School studies and its regimen came effortlessly for me while younger kids struggled.
Later, as a teacher myself, I have noticed this outlier effect again and again. Simply put, children start school at too early an age.
A friend's son was just on the wrong side of the "outlier" point, and struggled in first grade. He and his wife bit the bullet and had him repeat First Grade, "falling behind" his "peer group." He said later that it had been a fabulous decision for his son, who subsequently breezed through school and excelled in athletics.It's enough to make you wonder if, in large school districts, there shouldn't be half-year age cohorts instead of the full-year ones which we take for granted. But then, the optimum obviously would be individual instruction/grading which would obviate the need for invidious comparisons between "two pieces of fruit," which are in fact one apple and one orange. A natural strength of parental tutoring, a.k.a. "home schooling" . . .
A less usual case was of the parent who told me that her younger son's teacher noted in conference that her boy, who had been set back in school by having lived in Mexico for awhile, bossed around the younger kids. She said she replied, "He bosses around the older ones, too - he tells his older brother what to do all the time!" LOL!
My two oldest granddaughters, at least, won't have that trouble in reading - the oldest entered school as a reader, and the younger one is reading at age 4. So that's one less thing to worry about.
Holding kids back in school will never work. Think of all the wasted tax dollars heading for our education system that the ‘Rats will lose out on! And the younger the indoctrination begins, the easier they are to brainwash and ‘dumb down’ essentially producing the Sheeple the ‘Rats need to stay in power. (Think of the stats you’ve read on the recent 0bama voters. Yeesh!) An uneducated electorate is exactly what they want...and what they need to maintain.
It’s worked pretty well for 40+ years now, and it’s sad that a minority of todays kids are the only ones escaping it. :(
I was held back in school, and it made all the difference for me.
Thanks for the ping.
>>But then, the optimum obviously would be individual instruction/grading which would obviate the need for invidious comparisons between “two pieces of fruit,” which are in fact one apple and one orange. A natural strength of parental tutoring, a.k.a. “home schooling” . . .<<
Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner!
My little one “volunteered” at the school with my me in her big sister’s kindergarten class. The teacher let her have papers that the other kids were doing. She was three and was helping the five year olds.
She also has a March birthday.
We started homeschooling in December of the next year. Both girls went at their own pace. My hubby insisted that the little one “have the same advantage” as the older one and go to Kindergarten. She was 5 1/2 because of her birthday. In class she was “learning” colors and shapes. At home she was doing consonant blends and two digit addition. Needless to say, Kindergarten didn’t last long.
Children need to learn at their own pace. My nephew was born on Oct 29 and was 14 days over the limit to enter Kindergarten with his peers. We fought to get him in. He did just fine.
Homeschooling is the perfect solution.
And thanks for the ping!
Thanks for the ping. Looks like an interesting book.
No, those would be "out and out liars"... /g
Sowell's right (as usual) - but a stage can be set...
They key is attitudes. Over Christmas I attended a large get together and had a conversation with a 13 year old boy. He was telling me how his older brother (16), had just dropped out of school to get a job.
I told him his brother, with no education, risked being stuck in a low wage job for the rest of his life.
His response, "Edumuckashun is only important if you are going on to college. Regular working class people learn their job skills at work or can go to night school if they start to move up in the company."
Thanks, Kennard.
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