- Chapter 2 Teresa DeBrito - (Summery)
Written by Malcolm Gladwell
The second chapter of "David and Goliath" by Malcolm Gladwell changes the subject to offer the example of Shepaug Valley Middle School in Connecticut, faced with declining enrollments due to a reduction in population in their catchment area. It was built in the era of the baby boom when class sizes were big. Now, it has class sizes that are much smaller, where only 80 kids are present in the sixth grade. Gladwell uses this scenario to question whether the benefits or disadvantages of smaller-sized classes on the student's performance are actually true, as it is normally and popularly assumed to be.
Gladwell goes on to say that this is perhaps the most common claim: smaller class sizes are simply better. "A very large majority of Americans would prefer that their tax dollars go towards making classes smaller rather than giving teachers a raise. Indeed, he puts forward the evidences showing that the impact of class size on student outcomes is, at best, *equivocal. In fact, a number of the findings point to some groups of children benefiting from smaller classes but falling short of statistical significance, whereas many other studies show either no strong effect or even a negative class-size effect. In any case, the U.S. has pumped a lot of money into reducing the class sizes and hiring more teachers at a great cost but has not evidently *borne fruit with improved outcomes of the students.
From there, the conversation turns to the subject of wealth, chance, and upbringing in relation to the success of a Hollywood executive who came from Minneapolis. The journey of this man from organizing children in the neighborhood for snow shoveling to making it big in the entertainment world speaks volumes about hard work and the spirit of an entrepreneur that the working-class experience has *inculcated in him. However, the executive *expounds that it may be a challenge to bring up children in the same values, knowing well that they are living in a richly *laden environment. Gladwell tells this story to suggest that even something as straightforward as being a parent is complicated, and that wealth has its *insidious effects on child-raising. He says perhaps there could be an optimal middle ground between poverty and *affluence in raising children effectively.
Research shows that household income, on the other hand, has a significant effect on happiness and parenting only up to some limit—beyond around $75,000, the *propensity of "additional wealth" to have further effects on "life quality" will be high for the case of "happiness" and small or very small for the case of "quality of parenting. This then shapes an inverted-U curve, in which wealth benefits the ability of the parent to support up to a certain level before the benefits *plateau, most likely, and perhaps on the decline side, as the wealthy have to set boundaries for children aware of the family's financial capabilities.
Gladwell returns to academe, this time to demonstrate that the relationship between class size and student success is also an inverted-U. It is best in the medium range since either class size extreme, being too large or too small, may form a *hindrance for effective teaching and learning. He refers to the example of the Shepaug Valley principal, Teresa DeBrito, who is concerned with the dwindling enrollment in her school and how daunting it is to teach "very small classes. This general belief of small class sizes may not be true, since, according to the research done by DeBrito and Gladwell, it clearly shows that it is a more complex reality in which one solution does not *pertain to the same circumstances of educational success.
Finally, Gladwell points to the attachment at elite schools like Hotchkiss, which advertises its small class sizes in educational environments, despite evidence to the contrary. This criticism also goes to the larger assumption that the dividends pay off with wealth, translating into real-life benefits—a concept that is actually being contradicted both by the data in education and people's experiences, such as that of the Hollywood executive grappling with the effects of wealth on parenting.
These accounts and analytic ventures thus lead to large-scale reconsideration of many widely held general beliefs about the benefits of certain kinds of settings and educations for children, and certain kinds of parenting, in favor of more fine-grained understanding of how success and well-being are put together.
EN-EN Vocabulary
equivocal / ɪˈkwɪv ə kəl /
: (adj.) (of words or statements) not having one clear or definite meaning or intention; able to be understood in more than one way
: "of doubtful signification, capable of being understood in different senses," c. 1600, with -al (1) + Late Latin aequivocus "of identical sound, of equal voice, of equal significance, ambiguous, of like sound," past participle of aequivocare, from aequus "equal" (see equal (adj.)) + vocare "to call," which is related to vox (genitive vocis) "voice" (from PIE root *wekw- "to speak"). Earlier in same sense was equivoque (late 14c.). Related: Equivocally (1570s).
borne / bɔrn, boʊrn /
: (adj.) carried by
: "carried, sustained, endured," past tense and participle of bear (v.) in all senses not related to birth.
inculcated / ɪnˈkʌl keɪt, ˈɪn kʌlˌkeɪt /
: (v.) to cause somebody to learn and remember ideas, moral principles, etc., especially by repeating them often
: "enforce or stamp upon the mind," especially by admonitions or forcible statement, 1540s, from Latin inculcatus, past participle of inculcare "force upon, insist; stamp in, impress, tread down," from in- "in" (from PIE root *en "in") + calcare "to tread, press in," from calx (1) "heel" (see calcaneus). Related: Inculcated; inculcating.
expounds / ɪkˈspaʊnd /
: (v.) to explain something by talking about it in detail
: mid-14c., expounen, expounden, "to explain or comment on, to reveal the meaning" (of Scripture, etc.), from Old French espondre "expound (on), set forth, explain," from Latin exponere "put forth, expose, exhibit; set on shore, disembark; offer, leave exposed, reveal, publish," from ex "forth" (see ex-) + ponere "to put, place" (see position (n.)); with unetymological -d developing in French (compare sound (n.1)). The usual Middle English form was expoune. General (non-theological) sense of "set forth, reveal, describe or tell" is from late 14c. Related: Expounded; expounding.
laden / ˈleɪd n /
: (adj.) laden (with something) heavily loaded with something
: "loaded, weighted down," 1590s, adjective from the original past participle of lade.
insidious / ɪnˈsɪd i əs /
: (adj.) spreading gradually or without being noticed, but causing serious harm
: 1540s, from French insidieux "insidious" (15c.) or directly from Latin insidiosus "deceitful, cunning, artful, treacherous," from insidiae (plural) "plot, snare, ambush," from insidere "sit on, occupy," from in- "in" (from PIE root *en "in") + sedere "to sit," from PIE root *sed- (1) "to sit." Figurative, usually with a suggestion of lying in wait and the intent to entrap. Related: Insidiously; insidiousness.
affluence / ˈæf lu əns or, often, əˈflu- /
: (n.) the state of having a lot of money and a good standard of living
: mid-14c., "a plentiful flowing, an abundant supply," from Old French affluence, from Latin affluentia "affluence, abundance," literally "a flowing to," abstract noun from affluentem (nominative affluens) "flowing toward; abounding, rich, copious" (see affluent). The notion in the figurative Latin sense is of "a plentiful flow" of the gifts of fortune, hence "wealth, abundance of earthly goods," a sense attested in English from c. 1600. Latin affluentia is glossed in Ælfric's vocabulary (late Old English) by oferflowendnys.
propensity / prəˈpɛn sɪ ti /
: (n.) a natural desire or need that makes you tend to behave in a particular way
: 1560s, "disposition to favor;" 1610s, "a bent of mind, natural or acquired," with -ty + obsolete adjective propense "inclined, prone" (1520s), from Latin propensus, past participle of propendere "incline to, hang forward, hang down, weigh over," from pro "forward" (see pro-) + pendere "to hang, cause to hang; weigh" (from PIE root *(s)pen- "to draw, stretch, spin").
plateau / plæˈtoʊ or, especially British, ˈplæt oʊ /
: (n.) an area of flat land that is higher than the land around it
: 1796, "elevated tract of relatively level land," from French plateau "table-land," from Old French platel (12c.) "flat piece of metal, wood, etc.," diminutive of plat "flat surface or thing," noun use of adjective plat "flat, stretched out" (12c.), perhaps from Vulgar Latin *plattus, from or modeled on Greek platys "flat, wide, broad" (from PIE root *plat- "to spread"). Meaning "stage at which no progress is apparent" is attested from 1897, originally in psychology of learning. In reference to sexual stimulation from 1960.
hindrance /ˈhɪndrəns/:
: (n.) [countable, usually singular] a person or thing that makes it more difficult for somebody to do something or for something to happen
: mid-15c., a hybrid from hindren (see hinder (v.)) on model of French-derived words in -ance.
pertain /pərˈteɪn/
: (v.) to exist or to apply in a particular situation or at a particular time
: early 14c., perteinen, "be attached legally," from Old French partenir "to belong to" and directly from Latin pertinere "to reach, stretch; relate, have reference to; belong, be the right of; be applicable," from per "through" (from PIE root *per- (1) "forward," hence "through") + tenere "to hold" (from PIE root *ten- "to stretch").
From late 14c. as "to belong to as a possession or an adjunct; belong to as one's care or concern," also "have reference to." Related: Pertained; pertaining.
[Related Resources] :
Comments
Post a Comment