Download - English 1102 Essay
-
7/30/2019 English 1102 Essay
1/4
Ashton Jordan
Professor Padgett
English 1102
10 March 2013
To be a Nobel Prize winner, apparently, you have to be smart enough to get into
a college at least as good as Notre Dame or the University of Illinois. Thats all.(Chapter
3) When Gladwell writes The Trouble with Geniuses, Part 1 he gives the reader the
mindset that if you do not attend an Ivy League college that your chances of being
successful, or making a difference in society are not as high. All though this is not
entirely incorrect due to the fact that many employers look at the top schools such as
Harvard, Yale, and Cornell when choosing future employees. There are many examples
in history where children that seem odd or different during their childhood become
huge successes in society. Stephen Hawking, a renowned theoretical physicist did not
know how to read or write until he was seven years old but is now known as the smartest
man in the world.
Oddly, out of the past 25 Nobel Prize winners only three were graduates of
prestigious universities such as Harvard, and MIT. Gladwell expresses that all though a
high IQ is necessary to an extant, but once it is over 130 the impact it makes on you being
successful is slim. Lewis Terman, a Stanford psychology professor conducted one of the
most famous psychology experiments when he went to several hundred elementary and
high schools to find future geniuses. Before Terman conducted his analysis he asked
every teacher who his or her most gifted students were and refused to experiment on
anyone other than the so-called prodigies. He had over 40 test subjects during the
-
7/30/2019 English 1102 Essay
2/4
course of his experiment. During the course of his experiment, which lasted about two
years, he gave the children several IQ tests, and creativity tests. The creativity tests were
designed to see how they worked out problems in their head, and how they analyze
literature in a broad perspective. I believe that this is not a true way to test an adolescents
intelligence. At that early of an age a childs brain has not even developed a fourth of its
capacity. For children early in their childhood the test that would maximize great results
would be the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children. This test does not involve and
reading or writing but still analyzes a childs cognative ability. The test includes picture
concepts, matrix analysis, and word reasoning. To give an adolescent a mathematical or
literature test at that early on does not give you a precise result.
Through out my childhood I always dreamed of going to a prestigious university
such as Harvard, and Lehigh college. I believe when a child has dreams, and a positive
environment surrounding them any child can go to any college they want. A strong
mindset is crucial when going to school. Studies show that children with no supportive
parents or positive environment are 82% likely not to even finish the tenth grade.
(Gardner-Webb) Going through school I always had a strong parental involvement when
it came to my grades. With my parents being very strict with grades it pushed me to be
the best student I could be. As well as following my dreams, I always wanted to make my
parents proud. The problem with most children in the era is the fact that they do not have
a strong support system. During Termans experiment he also analyzed the childs
support system, and how involved each childs parents were with their education. He
realized that the more a parent is involved in a childs academics the harder a child will
strive to please both the parent and there self.
-
7/30/2019 English 1102 Essay
3/4
The result of his experiment showed that none of his geniuses made great strives
in society. All though they were pretty wealthy, his hypothesis was incorrect when he
stated that there would be huge strives in medicine, art, government, education, and many
Nobel Prize Winners. There were two students at an elementary school in California that
his field agents studied but decided that their IQ was not to their standards so they did not
choose to make further tests on them. These two students ended up winning the Nobel
Prize.
-
7/30/2019 English 1102 Essay
4/4
Autobiography
Gladwell, Malcolm. "The Trouble with Geniuses: Part 1." Outliers: The Story of Success.
New York: Little, Brown and, 2008. 69-91. Print.
Brown, Robert, Dr. "School of Psychology and Counseling." Gardner-Webb Psychology.
N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Mar. 2013. .