Thursday, September 30, 2010

Reflection on Outliers By Malcolm Gladwell

In my opinion, some ability and a positive attitude is required to preform a difficult task. In Renee`s situation, she had a poor mathematical ability but she was very determined to solve the simple problem. She took twenty-two minutes to figure it out, when most people would have given up after a few minutes, she perseveres to finish the problem.
    I have experienced that you need  ability and a positive attitude several times in my life. The first, was all the way back in 4th grade learning long division. My teacher taught right out of the book and I am more of a visual learner so I didn’t understand how it worked and it seemed like magic. After spending hours on homework and not understanding it, I asked my mom for some help and it took multiple explanations and several hours. The final explanation was a hands on approach using real life situations. I started out with a 4th graders knowledge of math and a strong want to learn and I ended up with a skill that I would use for the rest of my life.
    My mom had an experience where this skill is useful. She is in the final steps to becoming teacher and has been working on it for years. The hardest part for her was passing the elusive CSET. Altogether, she took it six times, changing he study habits each time. The final time she took it, she passed and thought it was a miracle.  It was because she had the attitude that she could succeed.
    I recently read The Unwanted by Kien Nguyen, in it he spent many years trying to escape communist Vietnam. Once he finally got an opening to leave, there was so many hoops to jump through and he patiently gathered the required papers. When he finally had only one paper to get signed, the official made him comeback for five days. Everyday he came back and waited showed his positive attitude to save him and his family.

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