Outside Reading Blog #1

For my outside reading book I decided to read, Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. This story is about how success isn't based on personal merit, it's based on where, when, how, why, what you have done, are doing, and what you are going to do. For my first blog I read the first fifty pages. They talked about how when you were born effects if you are successful in school and sports. I wanted to test this on myself and see if I would and have been successful at school and sports.

For school, to be successful Gladwell said that you would be one of the oldest in your grade. This meant you would have matured faster and been able to comprehend stuff better and faster. He says that this also then puts a disadvantage for the younger kids in the grade who haven't matured yet because then they would be considered slow and be put in classes for people who need that extra bit of help. THis would put them at a disadvantage, it is not that they aren't as smart as the others who are in AP and enriched classes, it is just they haven't matured that far yet so they can't comprehend it yet. This gives the younger kids a sense of being dumb and it will stay with them through high school. I used this on myself to see if his ideas were spot on and if they were true. My mom told me that I just barely made the date for people allowed in my grade. This means that I am one of the youngest in my grade, meaning I should be in foundation classes and classes that are under the skill of the normal class. This is not the case, I am in enriched chemistry and I am in no foundation class. So obviously, Mr.Gladwell's theory isn't fullproof but I still can see it being the case many times.

Next, I wanted to see if I hadn't been successful in team sports for that same reason. If since I just barely made the cut for the age requirement of a team than maybe that is why I didn't do so well. I played soccer and I was one of the younger ones on the team just like in school. I was athletic, not clumsy and uncoordinated. I could play but maybe because I wasn't as good as the older ones I was put on the B and C teams. Also I was pretty small compared to the average soccer player that was trying out. It seems to me that Gladwell was right on this one. I did quit playing soccer cause I felt wronged being on the C team and now I feel my age contributed to it. Also, I feel that since I was smaller and not as matured as the others that were sometimes 2 years older than me that I didn't get as many opportunities that I could have recieved if I played in a year younger. So Mr.GLadwell's theories hit right on the dot with my case in soccer and why I wasn't successful in my middle school soccer years.

So for my case, Mr.Glawell is 1 of 2 and so that means he was only fifty percent right for me. I still believe his theories are smart and probably true in alot of cases but not all.

-Jason