The formula for Malcolm Gladwell’s three best-selling non-fiction works is simple: amusing anecdotes plus a little science equal some “interesting” ideas about how we could fix something. In Blink he looked at a variety of seemingly disconnected things like taste tests and military war games to show how gut reactions can be better used and trained to take advantage of their accuracy.
Outliers seeks to answer questions about why some people are successful. The answers that Gladwell finds are neither earth-shaking, nor really all that “interesting.” The anecdotes, however, are, and it’s Gladwell’s ability as a story-teller that still makes the book worth reading.
In short, Gladwell argues that success is shaped by opportunity and legacy. This means that an uncontrollable factor such as when or where you were born could be a more controlling influence over the likelihood of an individual succeeding as factors like genetics or hard work and responsibility. Gladwell does not deny the influence of these other factors, noting that they are, in fact, necessary. Only that hard work alone does not necessarily account for why some succeed and some fail.
Gladwell leads this into a discussion about what can be done for schools to help students experience success. Among the ideas he advocates:
Re-grouping classes based on birth month. Gladwell shows how the younger students in a class are wrongly judged on their abilities because of their development. He recommends a 3-4 month grouping so the gap between youngest and oldest isn’t as pronounced.
Using the Asian system of numbers. Gladwell believes the American number system is counter-intuitive and that the Asian system fosters a greater ability to calculate individually.
Adopting year-round school. According to stats that Gladwell produces, most schools work. It’s the summer break that skews what progress is made when reading and math scores are broken down along socioeconomic lines. The lower brackets lose reading gains over the summer and actually make greater strides during the school year. Were the school calendar to reflect a more natural work calendar (or an Asian calendar) these gains would be maintained.
Adopting Asian-type school days. Looking at the TIMSS test Gladwell shows how you can predict the outcome of the test based on the number of questions students leave blank on the pre-test questionnaire. It’s amazing but true. This gets attributed to attention span and the way school days break down. Asian schools have longer bells, allowing for more time on individual problems, while typical American students give up after 30 seconds-2 minutes. Gladwell’s theory is that if American students were better at persisting (something he imaginatively attributes to rice paddy farming v. American-style farming) we would improve our ability to score highly on these tests.
In the end, it’s hard to say much more about Gladwell than “that’s interesting.” It’s not science, it’s not research, it’s a loose connection of anecdotes. Taken together, he seems to advocate Asian schools and Asian culture for producing academic success as measured by standardized tests. Why we should use such tests to measure what a successful student is or care about their results is not, however, addressed here. He leaves that for the academics.
See Gladwell on Charlie Rose (12/19/08 ) here.
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