Gladwell -- Outliers

Michiko Kakutani wrote a negative review of Malcolm Gladwell's new book Outliers. Kakutani feels that it is little more then a collection of common sense aphorisms. "Much of what Mr. Gladwell has to say about superstars is little more than common sense: that talent alone is not enough to ensure success, that opportunity, hard work, timing and luck play important roles as well."

She criticizes him for what I think is his greatest gift. That is, writing clearly about the solving of complex problems. Writing clearly does not mean that the ideas are in themselves simple, or "common sense." In fact, many of the conclusions Gladwell comes to are counter-intuitive, and require that you get beyond your first impulse.

Near the end of the book Gladwell writes about the findings of Johns Hopkins sociologist Karl Alexander. Here is a link to Alexander's article Lasting Consequences of the Summer Learning Gap. What Alexander finds in his study is that the main problem with the education of low-income students is what happens in the time that they are not in school, most specifically summer vacation. It is not necessarily news that children in these circumstances encounter problems in their home life. What is telling, however, is that Alexander (and by proxy Gladwell) finds that summer vacation is when the gap between low and high to middle-class students solidifies. Low-income students progress even further in a school year then their higher income counterparts.

We can reform education (and to some extent, need to) by changing the curriculum, spending more money on schools, and by hiring better teachers, but none of this will address the main cause of the problem. I use this as an example because it involves facts that we all, for the most part, already know. The conclusion of the report is not complex, yet it is not the conclusion I would have reached using my common sense.