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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…
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
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.
“People don't rise from nothing....It is only by asking where they are from that we can unravel the logic behind who succeeds and who doesn't”(Gladwell 18).
Throughout the book, Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell focuses on using the rhetorical technique of pathos to aid his readers in understanding the formula for success. In one particular part of the book, Gladwell uses experiences and human problems as examples to support his idea that plane crashes and ethnicty are related and the greater idea that success is based on opportunity.
Malcolm Gladwell, in the nonfiction book Outliers, claims that success stems from where you come from, and to find that you must look beyond the individual. Malcolm Gladwell develops and supports his claim by defining an outlier, then providing an example of how Stewart Wolf looked beyond the individual, and finally by giving the purpose of the book Outliers as a whole. Gladwell’s purpose is to explain the extenuating circumstances that allowed one group of people to become outliers in order to inform readers on how to be successful. The author writes in a serious and factual tone for the average person in society of both genders and all ethnicities who wants to become successful in life.
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....
Although it may not occur often Lareau fails to gives examples of different social classes using the opposite parenting style that is expected. Not every family is the same. In this book, every middle and upper middle class family focused on concerted cultivation and every working and lower class families focused on accomplishment of natural growth as their parenting styles. The book shows absolutely no example of a working or lower class families that raise their children under the concerted cultivation parenting styles and vice versa. From a personal standpoint, I was raised in the middle class and according to these two parenting styles it is likely that I will be raised in a concerted cultivation environment but in reality I was raised with a mix of concerted cultivation and accomplishment of natural growth with more of an emphasis on accomplishment of natural growth. There are most likely many other families that may mix these two parenting styles together or use the one that is not commonly associated with their social class and Lareau failed to also represent those families in her
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
Yes, when thinking about social classes in the Unites States, it is easier to gravitate towards the differences among them. However, through reading about the different families in Unequal Childhoods, there are similarities across social classes. One of the similarities among the middle, working, and poor class is the “absent” of parental involvement. Now, this also depends on how the reader views the situation. For the poor class or working class families, such as Katie Brindle and Tyrec Taylor, their parents left them alone to play on their own. Katie Brindle is a White girl who comes from a poor class family. Tyrec Taylor is a Black boy and is part of working class. Lareau observes, “Most working-class and poor parents did not consider children’s
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.
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
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...
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
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
Gladwell, Malcolm. Outliers: the story of success. 2011. Reprint. New York: Back Bay Books / Little, Brown and Co., 2008. Print.
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)