Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Bargains and Outliers - Chapter 9

[Outliers Reading Group]

The “Marita’s Bargain” chapter focuses on a leading college-prep school, the KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) in a struggling community in New York City. Gladwell gives special attention to one of the students, Marita, and the considerable effort and sacrifices she must make in order to do well at the school. She must rise early and study late into the night

Gladwell argues that KIPP “has succeeded by taking the idea of cultural legacies seriously.” That means that a tradition like summer vacation is replaced with year-round schooling; the times that the school day begins and ends are re-adjusted; and students are instructed to pay attention in, well, more attentive ways in class. A student like Marita is given more of a “chance” when someone brings “a little bit of the rice paddy to the South Bronx” and explains “the miracle of meaningful work.”

What aspect of the KIPP Academies system was most promising or problematic to you? Why or how so?

17 comments:

Deborrah Blackburn said...

The most problematic aspect of KIPP Academies is their school hours. The amount of time the children spend at school, especially if they do extracurricular activities, is like working twelve hours or more everyday and doing overtime on Saturday. Levin even says that the students are exhausted after school because of the activities and long hours. I don't think having such long hours is helping the students learn and retain more information in school.
Deborrah B.

Lindsey McCall said...

The problem I saw with the program is time. I know from experience, in high school, we had 8 hour days and then I had after school programs and sports. For me it was exhausting, and on top of it all I had to go home and do homework. Time is the most difficult part when it comes to education. How do you balance your day to day life, with your education and not be exhausted all the time?

Unknown said...

I feel like time can be an issue but good in the end. The student will benegit from the discipline but will be too torn out to actually be a "student"(no social development and self exploration that comes with new experiences) Jaiara Johnson

Unknown said...

I feel like time can be an issue but good in the end. The student will benegit from the discipline but will be too torn out to actually be a "student"(no social development and self exploration that comes with new experiences)Too much school can also be more harm than good because of the attention span of a student but the student has the opportunity to strengthen skills. Jaiara Johnson

Aja Jackson said...

I think the aspect of KIPP that is most problematic is the hours. It seemed like all Maria did was something that related to school and she had no free time to be a kid. I just think while hard work does pay off, it does not guarantee success in the end. Education is important but so are other life experiences.
-Aja J.

DuAuna Carraway said...

I believe that the time spent in class is promising. Even though it'll be nice to have a break or just free time, being in class longer pays off. They are bale to take their time and learn something they din't quite understand instead of going with the motions or cramming everything in in a short amount of time.

Kellsey H said...

I feel as though the aspect of time is the most problematic. These hours may ultimately lead to success academically, however, in the end, one must take into consideration the notion that education may not be the most important thing in life.

Alexandra Donaldson said...

I think the most problematic issue would be the time. It's is great to have more time for classroom learning; however, there should be an equal balance for extracurricular activities as well. The learning experience is important but it should not completely freeze the social life.
Alex D.

Aliyah Butler said...

I think that the year-round schooling would probably be most problematic. During high school a lot of kids don't have time to have a job during the school year because they have too much homework or they are involved in too many extracurriculars. Sometimes they can only get a job during the summer. Taking summer away from them would make it a lot harder for them to have a job for a long period of time. It'd be hard to balance work, school, and extracurriculars too.

Adryan B said...

What a big problem is, is the fact that there is year-round schooling. The fact that kids do not even really have time to enjoy their summer is sad. There are children who want to work during the summer and couldn't even do that because of the year round schooling. That makes it hard to even have a social life and not having that social life can cause so much stress. There is a such thing as passing from stress and constant worry.

Unknown said...

the problem is year around schooling. along with the fact that they have to be there on Sundays. kids need time away from school to learn things school can't teach you,
Anita J.

Tameah Foley said...

The school hours and having year round school was most problematic because, I know from my own experiences in high school, having 7 classes, 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, was hard enough. Therefore, not having a summer vacation and being in school for more than 8 hours and more than 5 days a week would be a real struggle. What if kids wanted to participate in extracurricular activities? It seems more like a job than school.

Unknown said...

The most problematic part of KIPP is the hours children spend at school. While I think long hours of study overall are good, breaks and free time are just as important for retaining information and not having an information overload which makes retaining specific things harder.

Courtney said...

I feel like the most problematic component of the school was the time frame. It was too much time throughout the days. I'll refer to California and their statistics when making a claim about the efficiency and impact of year round schooling and that being there is not that much of a difference. BUt for children who aren't use to the time frame, it will be harder for them to adjust.

Jacquesia H. said...

The time is the biggest problem to me. I feel as though there is nothing wrong with school being year round because it doesn't allow for those two months of summer in which students loose almost all of what they learned. But making a student spend more time in school along with that is an overload. Levin even mentions something about the students being exhausted after school is over. And most students have other things than just school to worry about so i don't think that was very smart.

Jacquesia H. said...

The time is the biggest problem to me. I feel as though there is nothing wrong with school being year round because it doesn't allow for those two months of summer in which students loose almost all of what they learned. But making a student spend more time in school along with that is an overload. Levin even mentions something about the students being exhausted after school is over. And most students have other things than just school to worry about so i don't think that was very smart.

Fiona Hill said...

The most problematic aspect of KIPP is the time. The students have no free time for extracurricular of social activities. Though education is most important, it isn't the only thing. You have to be well-rounded in things to get further ahead in life; KIPP doesn't give the opportunity for students to do anything except be in school.