The first chapter of the "Outliers" stresses the importance of receiving the right chance and luck to be developed ahead of your mates. The examples Malcome Gladwell uses are athlete groups, where players born in earlier months of the year have better chances of becoming champions. While I was reading this part, I immediately thought of the education system of Korea and how it pushes the students to study ahead of the right course.
Thinking about the past, I was always encouraged and somewhat forced by the parents and my school to study ahead of the year's course. Even when I was in elementary school, I learned the fifth grader's texts when I was still in the third grade. However, I was not the rare case. All the students studied in private institutions or by themselves about the courses that they were going to study in the next two or three years. It was the trend back then and it is still going on until this day. When a teacher teaches something at school, majority of the students already know about it because they have studied it beforehand.
I figured that this might be the reason why Korean (generally Asian) students are regarded as smart. Because of the high educational standards, Korean students start to learn mathematics or english earlier than other students in other parts of the world. Because we get a head-fast start, we are able to keep the lead through all of our school lives.
I think I would be interesting to analyze the birthdays of KMLA students and see which month we were born the most. If it really is January or February, it will really prove Malcome Gladwell's point.
Hayeon also mentioned the KMLA birthday thing. I think Gladwell's book receives a fare bit of criticism on that point, however; while some of his other points very few people would argue with, such as the 10,000 hour rule.
답글삭제Korea's education system has problems, and also a lot of impressive points. But does racing ahead of the government education system achieve any purpose if students are required to spend time in public schools relearning what they already know? Why not just get rid of the entire public system if it is not catering to the majority? Does the bar have to be raised? These are things unrelated to the book, but you've produced these questions.
Two future reading journals you should prepare for are: 1) You pick someone famous not in the book and illustrate how they qualify as an outlier 2) You take a look at yourself and illustrate how you perhaps fall into this outlier category (or hope to in the future).
Good stuff.