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What is the impact of social class on the success and experience of young people
Does social class affect success
Does social class affect success
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In the passage from “Outliers”, published in November of 2008, acclaimed author Malcom Gladwell discusses class and argues that being a part of a higher class comes with its advantages in regards to being successful. He supports this claim by using rhetorical strategies such as ethos, example and comparison, along with an unvarnished tone, with the purpose of exhibiting the advantages of social class on success. With higher class comes a distinct parenting style referred to as “concerted cultivation”. Gladwell highlights this advantage with the implementation of ethos, using expert sociologist Annette Lareau. Lareau elaborates on how concerted cultivation is “an attempt to actively foster and assess a child’s talents, opinions and skills” (Lines 14-15). …show more content…
The middle class parents feel morally responsible for their child’s development. So, with this their children tend to be involved in sports, clubs, the arts, etc. They have a heavy schedule, stimulating their mind and exposing them to new experiences. Thus, these middle class children have an enormous advantage because with concerted cultivation they learn to develop a sense of entitlement by interacting with others in all of their given opportunities. Gladwell uses the example of Alex to display the advantage of class.
As mentioned before, higher class children learn a sense of entitlement, and to speak up when needed. Gladwell uses Alex Williams from Lareau’s study as an example, showing that wealthier children have the advantage of learning how to assert themselves in specific situations. When at the clinic, the doctor begins to discuss Alex’s height percentile, he interrupts, “I’m in the what?’ ‘It means you’re taller than […] young men when they’re ten years old’ ‘I’m not ten.’”(Lines 60-65). Alex interrupts his doctor without hesitation not because of poor mannerisms but because of how he was taught to verbalize himself. Gladwell has a very unvarnished tone when stressing that this interaction is the type of advantage that come with being a part of a higher social class, parents teach their children to assert themselves and ask questions in a respectful manner to those whom are of authority. This comfortability with presenting themselves to their superiors is how a lot of opportunities are acquired that end up making people successful, so with the poorer children being more submissive—they simply would not come across a lot of exclusive
circumstances. The comparison of Alex Williams and Katie Brindle is set up by Gladwell to augment his argument on how higher class holds advantages. He states that despite poorer children being “better behaved, less whiny and more creative” (Lines 21-22) they do not know how to cope in extremely structured settings whereas the more wealthy children do. Although the higher class children are not morally better than the working class children, they do have a great deal of advantages over the others. The poor children continue to have “an emerging sense of distance, distrust and constraint” whereas the more fortunate children “acted as though they had a right to pursue their own personal preferences” (Lines 35-36, 42-43). The advantage that is shown by Gladwell’s unvarnished comparison that the higher class children know how to customize their environment that it is a particular mastery they have acquired by ambiance in which they are surrounded by. Gladwell’s use of rhetorical strategies such as ethos, example and comparison is what drives the idea of this passage—that with higher class comes advantages. The children raised in wealthier surroundings are not necessarily better than those who do not, but they have many advantages over the lower class children. These basic advantages are what separate those who are good and those are not good enough.
I found Gladwell’s first chapter of Outliers entitled “The Matthew Effect” to be both interesting, confusing, and perhaps somewhat lopsided. Based on Matthew 25:2, Gladwell simply explains, “It is those who are successful, in other words, who are most likely to be given to the kinds of special opportunities that lead to further success.” (Gladwell 2008, pg. 30) The Matthew Effect seems to extend special advantages and opportunities to some simply based on their date of birth.
In Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers, he defines an outlier as someone who does something out of the ordinary or differently. The author is very credible and has a few awards for writing, “Outliers.” We should listen to Gladwell because some of his information is knowledgeable and can help with everyday life. His purpose is to teach us about the many rules that are being described in the book. The main intended audience would have to be the world and how he displays his values to millions of people. Malcolm Gladwell discusses how someone’s IQ that is in the upper one hundreds is the same as someone’s IQ in the lower one hundreds. Malcolm Gladwell has a lot of credibility and is a reliable source for information. He went to school for a career in advertising and got his degree from the university of Waterloo. The ten thousand hour rule is described as having ten thousand hours of practice, and getting better, at what is being practiced. Outliers are so heard upon in the book and yet there are very few of them today.
The popular saying “practice makes perfect” has been used for many years encouraging younger generations to strive for success in whatever area they wish to excel in. Success is something everybody in society strides for but some do not know how it is achieved. However, there are many people throughout history who are known for achieving success in many areas. Malcolm Gladwell, a best selling author and speaker, identifies these people as being outliers. Gladwell identifies the word “outlier” in his story Outliers as “a scientific term to describe things or phenomena that lie outside normal experience.” Although Malcolm Gladwell does not establish credibility for himself in his novel, his targeted audience of a younger inexperienced generation feel the need to be informed by his detailed theories about becoming successful and eventually becoming an outlier. Although the reality of becoming successful can depend on instances one can not control, Gladwell tells his readers there is a great portion they can control through his theory, the 10,000 hour rule. He does this by using well presented logical persuasive appeals and interesting rhetorical devices such as: onomatopeias, exposition, and argumentation.
Lareau also reported that many working class and poor parents feel that educators hold the expertise, and usually fear doing the “wrong thing” in school-related matters (Lareau 357). What this usually leads to is trying to maintain a separation between school and home (Lareau 358). Working class and poor parents typically are deferential while middle class parents can be demanding toward school personnel (Lareau 358). More educators want poor and working class parents to be more assertive (Lareau 358). “Put differently, they wish these parents would engage in forms of concerted cultivation” (Lareau 358).
In Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell expresses his theory of success through the 10,000 hour rule that is used to associate practice with success and achieving certain goals. He strives to influence the audience of his point of view and assumptions of successful people throughout the history of the world. Gladwell relates to various historical figures and people of well known talent and intelligence. As the author, Malcolm Gladwell believes to be very knowledgeable, influential throughout the novel. Although he provides interesting facts and statistics to his piece, Gladwell is unable to establish credibility to this information. During college and high school, he did not attain high grades that altered his decision to engage in advertising. After being rejected numerous times, he was later accepted to a journalism position. His insufficient experience and skills contributes to his low credibility and reliability. Gladwell aims to persuade or influence the audience of the importance of practice to fulfill success by also trying to teach the reader new skills. He reaches out to society to capture his inspiring discoveries including young adults in particular who are aspiring to grasp their desired dreams. He introduces the 10,000 hour rule as a goal to reach around the age of twenty or higher. Gladwell compares the lives of professional hockey players, Bill Gates, the Beatles, and Mozart to display their achievements in their later lives due to the amount of experience and practice they were able to endure. He claims that with exactly 10,000 hours of practice, expert level will be sustained in any given skill. Although Gladwell expresses his knowledge and theories of success through devices that exemplify logos and repetition of the 10,00...
Gregory Mantsios advocates more on the struggle to proceed from one class to another in his essay-“Class in America”. Mantsios states that, “Class standing has a significant impact on our chances for survival....
Once in a while, it really hits people that they don’t have to experience the world in the way they have been told to. Gladwell believes that cultural legacies are powerful forces. Cultural legacies are the customs of a family or a group of people, that is inherited through the generations. According to Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Outliers, Cultural legacies is something that’s been passed down for generations to generations. It depends on what type of legacies was passed that will affect a person. If a good legacy was passed down, someone can keep that legacy going by trying hard at keeping the legacies going. If a bad legacy was passed down; I believe that cultural legacies can be altered or changed, by good working habits, determination, and a positive mindset to succeed. Culture can affect either positively or negatively, but we have the power to turn our cultural
One way isn’t always the right way. There is rarely one route to positivity and success and this is one of these cases. This is shown in the article when we learn of the different parenting styles of Martin Altenburg’s parents compared to Kwasi Enin’s parents. On one hand, Kwasi’s parents pushed him to academic accomplishment, and on the other hand, Martin’s parents preferred for their children to follow their interests. This story shows the previously mentioned main idea because even with a strict or carefree environment at home, Kwasi and Martin were able to accomplish the prestigious academic feat of acceptance to all Ivy League
Gladwell, Malcolm. Outliers: the story of success. 2011. Reprint. New York: Back Bay Books / Little, Brown and Co., 2008. Print.
To those of you that are willing to open your minds and consider the possibilities of new and different concepts about the way our society’s views successful people and the reasons behind their success. I invite you to accompany me, as I take a closer look into Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers and more specifically reviewing and analyzing the reasoning behind the logical, ethical, and emotional examples used by Gladwell in chapter two. While also acknowledging that the selected examples support the concept presented in the chapter regarding success and clearly show that Gladwell has chosen to rely on a more logical approach for his argument. However, he still uses an ethical and emotional aspect
Introduction: People have different success stories that explain the ups and downs they have had to go through to achieve all they can. Most of the world’s admired men today who have turned out to be the inspiration of most of the people that are excited and determined to succeed in life never started where they are. This essay brings to light various concepts based on the success story book by Malcolm Gladwell which if well applied, will make any man successful. There is a common denominator in the successful and that is their way of thinking that places them in a unique category in life, they react and perceive situations differently even in the same circumstances. The concept of outliers is the underlying idea in the entire success story book by Malcolm.
Michiko Kakutani is correct in her argument that Malcolm Gladwell’s writing is baseless because he attempts to extrapolate selective studies and anecdotes into broad hypotheses to support his irrational claims. This is seen when Gladwell cites what Robert Merton called the “Matthew Effect” and suggests that, “Children from wealthy or middle-class backgrounds are much more likely to succeed than those from impoverished ones.” To support this claim, Gladwell chooses two isolated cases of Chris Langan’s failure and J. Robert Oppenheimer’s success in life. The only similarities between these two men are their high intelligence and genius-level IQs, but Gladwell attributes Oppenheimer’s success to his “wealthy, privileged childhood [...] that allowed him to get what he wanted from the world.” Kakutani criticizes that Gladwell only chose these two men as
Social status can be defined as the position or rank of a person or group, within their society. Social status can be gained through a multitude of ways such as the career field one is in, the amount of community involvement they display or by a persons financial standing. Students of course, not having a surmountable amount of status rely on their parents. An example of this could be “ the working class schools” in which most of the student parents have blue-collar jobs who are below the federal poverty level ( at or below $12,000 or less). In these schools students receive an education that is far more mediocre compared to the students whose families make a larger income in that the higher statues students receive an education that prepares them to be independently minded and creative while the low status student learning to memorize and work to be able to follow directions. In Jean Anyon essay “From Social Class And The Hidden Curriculum Of Work” she assesses this theory of social class discrimination. Anyon examines the type of learning and objectives focused on in 5 different school which represent 5 different statues of families in society. In Anyon’s examination she discovered that the students whose family has a low social status receive a more command and follow type of instruction in which any command not followed is reinforced by punishment. On the other hand
Almost all of us believe that the world is divided into different classes, and that most people look up to the upper class and hope to be one of them someday. People define success in a different way. Most of us feed off from what other people convince us to believe what being successful looks like. The world and media has a big influence on us, making us believe on the opportunity that we can all be successful, that being successful means being rich, being top of your field, having a career with higher earnings, and everything that the media or the people portray. Diana Kendall and Harlon Dalton are two authors that both have two different theories regarding class in America. Nevertheless both come together
This lesson plan was designed with the intention to make students aware of the hierarchal nature of society, and get them to reflect on their position in said structure. Without the former, the latter cannot be realized, for to acknowledge one’s position on a scale of sorts, they must first acknowledge that a scale exists. The issue with getting students to recognize society’s order of classification is the notion that those with privileged positions on the gamut of social statuses refuse to acknowledge or concede their privileges (McIntosh, 1990). Because by confessing an advantaged state, the state itself becomes problematized. In other words, admitting an advantage over someone else is to confess the perpetuation of a hierarchal order. For without people taking advantage of others there would be no advantaged or disadvantaged. In addition, by being cognizant of their position in society, the positions themselves become less desirable. The reason being, that one of the principal privileges that one can enjoy is the ability to not have to think about one’s advantages over others, by being the dominant, or ‘normal’ in a given society. And although McIntosh (1990)