Thanks for sharing and providing us with a short summary of the book.
After reading it, I am keen to head to the bookstore to pick it up !
SAHM_TAN:I read this book about 8 months ago, but I still feel deeply about it.
Outliners: The story of success by Malcolm Gladwe
It's an interesting an engaging read. It list a number of factors for success such as being born as the right time (in term of industrial development, world wars), the right months (due to cut off dates for school, as in if cut off date is 1st Jan, those born in the Jan - Mar, tend to have nore opportunities because level of maturity will be view as more capable and be put in better class, learn more, practice more in terms of more homework, etc so begin a cycle of self-fulfilling prophecy), 10 000hrs of practice (to be hardworking and do persistent work, the time to clock to be expert be it in the area of sports, academic, music, biz, etc so as to have the experience and skills), opportunities (people in ur life, even unfavourable circumstances, even luck as in right place right time), cultural legacies.
The bottomline is, though there might be certain historical events that is out of our control, if we are smart enough, go to a good enough school, hardworking and persistent to clock the time to build the expert skills and knowledgde, of our interest, and have the presence of mind to grab opportunities, we can all succeed.
At the end of the chapter, the author analyse why poor kids do poorly compared to rich kids academically in US school. They did a test and found that when the kids are in school they did comparely well for both groups in first year of school. The gap in performance starts to show as the years progress and the cause was determined to be the school holiday. During school holidays, the rich kids go for enrichment programme and have access to resources to improve themselves academically while the poor kids play. Over the years the school holidays provided the extra time for the rich kids to surpass the poor kids academically. There is a KIPP school that target the poor kids (of 12 yrs old), to gain admission is via balloting so they do not select through IQ or test results. The students go through 10 hrs of study excluding homework, even go back to school on Sat and school holidays. As a result more than 80% of them are able to go to college.
Are we reducing our talents when the schools try to find out who are the brightest and who are not in primary schools, ?
Maybe school holidays should be reduced so that kids who need more help can be helped by the teachers.
If school holidays are not reduced then kids who need more time and practice to learn the skills, knowledge and competencies will have to turn to tuition centres or the parents will have to take over. Kids from disadvantaged families will be gradually left behind. Unless they go to the public libraries to read and learn.
Although the findings in the book may not be very scientific, I find it rather logical.