Outliers

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2008

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Introduction-Part 1, Chapter 2

Part 1, Chapters 3-5

Part 2, Chapters 6-7

Part 2, Chapter 8-Epilogue

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Part 2, Chapter 8-EpilogueChapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 2: “Legacy”

Chapter 8 Summary: “Rice Paddies and Math Tests”

This chapter is about the phenomenon of Asian students generally doing better in math than students from Western cultures, which is shown by standardized tests given worldwide. Part of this, Gladwell argues, comes from language. Linguists have pointed out that learning English vocabulary for math is more rote because it doesn’t follow a strong pattern, while Asian languages are logical and patterned. For instance, there are different words in English for each group of ten: ten, twenty, thirty, and so on. Likewise, the teen numbers are especially tricky, using unique words (eleven, twelve, etc.). By contrast, for example, Chinese builds solely on the concept of ten and has a strict pattern: “one-ten-five” means fifteen, “two-tens-five” means twenty-five, and so on. Thus, children make more headway early on, and it’s estimated that Asian children are a whole year ahead of English-speaking children in math by age five.

The difference, however, runs deeper than that. Gladwell goes back in history to describe in depth the amount of labor required in rice-producing cultures found in Asia versus cultures in Europe, where other crops were grown. Rice is much more labor-intensive, requiring constant work. Peasants in southern China also produced two harvests and engaged in other tasks during the short winter season, thus spending more time actively working than European peasants did. In addition, they had more autonomy because there was no comparable feudal system to that found in Europe; after a certain percentage paid to the landlord, they could keep the results of their labor. Thus, it was ingrained in their thinking that hard work pays off.

All of this, the author argues, plays a role in math skills. The language advantage that gives Asian children a head start creates a gap that builds over time. More important, the cultural propensity for hard work in Asian cultures pays off in math, according to research. Gladwell cites studies showing that just sticking with a math problem and working on it longer leads to better results. Too often Western students like Americans give up if they don’t know how to solve a problem right away. This is reflected in the survey questions that accompany the worldwide exam of math and science, known by the acronym TIMSS. One researcher noted an exact correlation between this lengthy and rather tedious survey and the scores of the actual math test: The more questions a student answered in the survey, the higher their math score.

Chapter 9 Summary: “Marita’s Bargain”

This last chapter focuses on the education system in the United States. Drawing again on the comparison of Asian and Western agricultural methods, Gladwell examines the difference in summer vacations. In Asia, the nature of rice farming means fields are less depleted of nutrients and only need to lie fallow for short periods. Conversely, Western crops are much more depleting, so land requires longer fallow periods. By analogy, Western societies thought that young people’s fertile minds required similar periods of “lying fallow” to best absorb information. Consequently, summer vacation in Asian countries is at least a month shorter.

The ramifications of this for children’s education are profound. When researchers looked at the data produced by achievement tests in the US, they found that the students with lower socioeconomic status actually kept up with those from more privileged backgrounds during the school year. It was during summer vacation that they fell behind each year, indicating that wealthier parents provided their children with summer enrichment activities and tutoring to maintain their skill levels.

Gladwell introduces a special school in the Bronx, New York, called KIPP Academy. It serves underprivileged students from low socioeconomic status and is particularly strong in boosting their math scores. Its success, he asserts, lies not in a new curriculum or teaching methods, but in “taking the idea of cultural legacies seriously” (252) by “bring[ing] the lessons of the rice paddy to the American inner city” (260). By this he means that the school requires longer days and a shorter summer vacation simply to give students more instruction and practice. The students thus adopt some aspects of Asian culture to better their educational opportunities.

Epilogue Summary: “A Jamaican Story”

Finally, in the Epilogue, Gladwell examines his own family in light of circumstances and cultural influences. He starts with an overview of his mother’s life. Joyce Gladwell succeeded at school growing up in Jamaica, then went to university in England, where she met her husband (Gladwell’s father). A certain set of circumstances and Joyce’s strong-willed mother combined to set her on the path to success.

The author then backs up to go into detail about the life of his grandmother, Daisy Nation, and how her family background molded her personality and strong will. She was descended from an Englishman and his African slave. This particular racial heritage gave her family an advantage in the race-conscious culture of Jamaica, an advantage transferred through the generations. That is, his grandmother’s “ambition for her daughters did not come from nowhere, in other words. She was the inheritor of a legacy of privilege” (280). This, along with several coincidental events, allowed Gladwell’s mother to succeed.

Part 2, Chapter 8-Epilogue Analysis

These final two chapters and the Epilogue continue Gladwell’s analysis of culture and its hold on our behavior. The research he uses is partly historical, as he relies on cultural aspects ingrained in our mindset from the early times of agricultural societies. The summary for Chapter 8 above notes the different lessons cultures learned from cultivating rice compared to other crops. Another study he cites examined old proverbs of both Chinese peasants, who were relatively autonomous, and Russian peasants, who lacked autonomy as serfs. The difference in mindset is demonstrated: The Russian sayings are much more fatalistic, reflecting their circumscribed status, while the Chinese proverbs include beliefs like, “No one who can rise before dawn three hundred sixty days a year fails to make his family rich” (238). The latter reflects the idea that taking the initiative and working hard will lead to success.

After presenting the research behind his ideas regarding culture, Gladwell then shows how the lessons of one culture can be “borrowed” by another in seeking success. This is similar to what he described earlier with the South Korean pilots. In that case, a factor from their own culture was preventing success, and the answer was to remove it and replace it with an aspect of a different culture. In Chapter 9, on teaching math in schools, one culture also adopts an aspect of another culture to improve its chance of success. These illustrate Gladwell’s point regarding honesty about the impact of culture despite the uneasiness some might have around the idea of stereotypes: If we pay attention and recognize this impact, we can make it work in our favor. He ends the book on a personal note, putting all of his themes together in discussing the cultural influences, family history, and random events and opportunities in his own family’s story, while wishing that more people could share in opportunities for success.