David And Goliath Underdogs, And The Art Of Battling Giants

Malcolm Gladwell, the author of Outliers, a novel depicting success, provides different examples of how an individual can achieve success in every chapter of his book to show his audience that success, despite a variety of barriers, is in fact in our control. A very important chapter titled, “Marita's Bargain”, explains the flaws in today’s public school systems. He shows the problems with the solutions to fix them while showing the alternatives to the regular system such as the KIPP Program in New York. The KIPP Program (Knowledge is Power Program) is a new kind of middle school that selects students from less fortunate locations and uses unique teaching strategies to turn them around into fantastic learners. In the chapter, Gladwell is extremely descriptive by using visual words to paint the picture of the South Bronx in New York City. He describes the buildings that were built in the 1960’s as squat and bleak looking. Gladwell had an interest in this subject as it involves success, however he had no prior experiences to produce the piece. Gladwell establishes personal credibility through the use of knowledge, reason, and facts and figures. He comes across very knowledgeable on the subject presenting great data with excellent vocabulary. He is able to do this with no obvious bias as well. Gladwell shows authority because he is well known for writing novels that involve success. His intention is to teach and explain how schools need to change the length of vacation breaks

In “How Not to Get into College”, Kohn states that all decisions and goals made by students are based on extrinsic motivators, and that they are essentially controlling them. He tells the students in a sarcastic tone to “let grades control your life. All decisions about how to spend your time and plan your academic schedule should be arrived at with grades in mind” (para 2). Kohn discusses the problem that students are facing with their early lives and education: they allow extrinsic motivations such as grades to rule their lives, and make decisions that benefit them extrinsically rather than intrinsically. This which creates an issue as they lose the inner motivation to strive for the top. Furthermore, in “Somnambulist”, Jones discusses how people are continuously exhausting themselves by making decisions that are based off extrinsic motivators. He writes that individuals are “exhausting [their] skills but not to worry cause’ every two weeks [they] get a cut of government regulated and filtered income” (lines 17-18). Jones argues that individuals within society are continuously exhausting their valuable skills, as well as themselves on a daily basis as they work towards

While reading Ken Bain’s book “What the Best College Students Do” of the five different types of students he describes, I feel like I fall under the label of one having mediocre grades but achieving success. I make good grades, however I do not necessarily believe my grades always reflect my hard work, determination and effort put in, similar to his theory on false hope in standardized testing. Throughout my school career, I have consistently made A and B grades. I can remember only one C grade, which was a quarter grade, and very disappointing, but a lesson learned. At the same time though, and as Bain helped me realize through his text, grades are not everything and making a C is not something that is going to kill me; there is simply more to school than a letter grade. In fact he points out through most of the 1800s schools only used two grades, pass or fail. As seen nowadays, schools have since adopted the letter grade system.

He uses many rhetorical questions to provoke a desire to change oneself for the better, “What happens if we keep trudging along this bleak course? What happens if our most intelligent students never learn to strive to overcome what they are?” (Edmundson 402). If students cannot better themselves, can society ever better itself? If students have no passion for school, they will have no passion for things after college such as their jobs. They will settle for sub-par situations because it is the easy thing to do. Seeking a job raise will become too much of a hassle. Investing themselves into politics, too much of an inconvenience. Contributing to society, too much of a nuisance. They will take the easy way out, the way with the least amount of investment and passion and society will

In the story “I Just Wanna Be Average” the author Mike Rose argues that society very often neglects and doesn’t see the full value and potential of students.

Murray employs the rhetorical appeals of ethos, pathos and logos throughout the essay. The pathos, or pathetic appeal, of the argument is based on what Murray believes is society’s misalignment of understanding when it comes to propelling that all youth prepare to attend college. He makes the claim that a student with a natural liking for the rigorous abilities that it takes to complete a college education, and whose test scores indicate the threshold for college readiness, is more likely to succeed than an individual who doesn’t enjoy the work and who also tests low (PARAGRAPH 11). And because of this misalignment, those low testing, students are being set up to fail. The essay’s ethical appeal suggests that guidance counselors, teacher, political figures and others with a vested interest in a student’s progress, should do more to help students understand what their strengths are and that college is not always the best route for them to take (PARAGRAPH 41). Lastly, the appeal to logos, or the logical appeal is the basis of

Have you ever had an extraordinary desire for something, only to have someone tell you it is out of your reach? Does that make you try harder, or completely give up? In Professor X’s essay, In the basement of Ivory Tower, (X) he goes into great detail stating how his students have the desire to maintain high academic standards in order to receive a promotion, to further their career, or because it is a job requirement. However, these same students cannot possibly pass their classes due to their lack of abilities. Initially, I found myself believing the author was hostile and unhappy in his career, although, the more I read this article I found myself shifting opinions, and I began to appreciate what a controversial topic college education truly is. Professor X discusses how some students are unfit for college. I believe that college isn’t for everyone. Furthermore, society has set expectations that everyone should attend college. As a society we have lost track of the value of apprentice programs.

In the article Our Crazy College Crossroads, Frank Bruni, addresses the topic of rejection involving students who are applying to colleges by using pathos to connect to his readers on the topic. The author appeals to his readers by uprooting the idea of rejection and worth that are commonly felt by students who are rejected from their top school. He does this through the use of metaphor, rhetorical questions and aggressive statements. Bruni attacks many opposing views such as of Malcolm Gladwell by criticizing the science behind his an argument. Bruni also points out the difference between those who get in to Ivy League colleges and those who don’t. He does this by presenting the means that some individuals lack such as financial support,

Would author Wes’s life turned to opposite direction, if he didn’t have strong social capital? Two years later, author Wes graduated from military school; he applied to Johns Hopkins University and eventually got an acceptance letter. Author Wes said, “his SAT scores were hundreds of points below the average for students entering Johns Hopkins, and despite him being a junior college graduate and an Army officer” (Moore160). Despite having a low score, because of social capital he earned admission to the university where he did his

In Professor X’s essay, In the basement of Ivory Tower, (X) Professor X goes into great detail, arguing that his students have the desire to maintain high academic standards, for example, to receive a promotion, to further their career, or because it is a job requirement. However, these same students cannot possibly pass their classes due to their lack of educational abilities. Initially, I found myself believing the author was hostile and unhappy in his career, although the more I read and re-read this article I found myself shifting opinions, and I began to appreciate what a controversial topic college education truly is. Professor X discusses how these students are unfit for college. Like Professor X, I believe that college isn’t for everyone. Society has created expectations that everyone needs to attend college. Society has encourage our citizens to have personal expectations without putting forth the work, and society has also helped us lose track of the apprentice programs we once relied on.

At a young age Wes never took a liking to education. When his mother put him in Riverdale School, a prestigious rich school in the Bronx, Wes refrained himself from taking the opportunity of receiving a good education. Therefor His mother gathered thousands of dollars from friends and family to pay for Military school at Valley Forge. Her intention was to allow Wes to take education seriously, and expose himself to new enviorments besides the brutality in the Bronx. To steer him away from a life of crime, and creat a bright future. At Military school Wes attempted to escape but was caught. Right then he realized he couldn’t escape and needed to choose what was best for him. He applied to a college named Johns Hopkins, had internships with Mayor Schmoke, and was not only accepted but also received scholarship money. Wes was now going in the right direction, as well became more than appreciative his mother intervened in his life. “I was lucky to to have supportive, encouraging people to help guide me.” “Hard work is essential, but you also need people around you who believe you can make it.” (p.101) All his mentors, Mayor Schmoke, his mother, Military school etc. steered him to a successful life to this day, and made him see the reality of how having an education, and mentors goes a long

On December 2, 2016, in the opinion editorial, “How to Get In,” Susan Estrich, best-selling author and liberal columnist for the Creators, argues that hard work, not college acceptances, determine people’s future successes, challenging the notion that people’s opportunities and potentials are defined by the colleges they enter. Refuting the misconception that “getting into the right college is a meal ticket for life,” Estrich argues that GPA’s and LSAT’s may decide the difference between rejection and acceptance, but ultimately, tenacious hard work throughout life counts “for more than anything else,” before concluding that the “secret to a good application” is honesty and that, although she understands admissions can be partisan and erroneous through personal experience, in the end, she “did just fine”- an echoing sentiment to all prospective college applicants. Estrich

Imagine a brilliant high school child named Michael who has a high GPA and is enrolled in the honors and AP curriculum; he precipitates in multitudes of extracurricular activities including sports and clubs. He gets accepted to many schools and received many scholarships. However, even with financial aid, he and his family are economically deprived and therefore incapable in funding a college education. This scenario is not an imagination but a common event in modern day America. Fifty percent of eighteen to twenty-five year old adults who did not attend a higher education institution experienced a similar situation (Why). These people belong in a university, an establishment whose nature is to judge base on the intelligence not on the

Author Bill Pennington formulates about Victor Cruz, who attends the University of Massachusetts in the article, “Defying the Odds.” Cruz was a student who had all the support and help he could get while in college, but he just did not realize it. With him not taking the initiative to use the help he was being offered, his football scholarship was revoked and he was kicked out the college. He had this situation happen because he could not keep his grades up. What Cruz should have realize it that if he was struggling in a class, he should have went and asked for help. But he finally came to his senses and seen he was being offered help. So he took the initiative to receive the help he was being offered. With him doing that, he was able to play football and attend the University of Massachusetts. Most all his grades were better.

Upon doing research on Charles Murray it was discovered that he went to Harvard, which may make one doubt the validity of his argument. Another faulty is that a man who went to such a prestigious school will have a different expectation than someone who went to the University of New Hampshire for example. Of course he doesn’t think college is for everyone because not everyone may be able to make it through a college as vigorous as Harvard. Anyone that attends Harvard has some amount of talent but “anything below an IQ of 110 is problematic…if you want to do well [in college], you should have an IQ of 115 or higher” (Kirszner, Mandell 677). By making this statement, one can doubt his arguments validity; he may be making too high of an expectation for the “qualifying” student academically college abled and underestimating the “unqualified” college student that should try two years of vocational school before attempting a four year college. Millar, who did not attend an Ivy League school like Murray, and did an exceptionally well job of convincing her readers by stating facts with opinions. If a woman who went to UCLA can do that, than Murray may be overestimating college and adding more insult than encouragement. If a parent has a child with an IQ less than that of a “qualifying” one, then Murray may appear discriminatory towards an audience that is associated