A successful student, like an outlier, depends on the situation. A successful student is one who works to their full potential. However, some students have higher potentials than others. While this may be caused by differences in maturity level, it is most likely caused by similar issues to those that Gladwell mentions in his book. The older students probably got the best treatment in the beginning of their educations and therefore always had a little advantage. This advantage could have then built up over time to become the difference betweeen straight A's and merely average grades.
Another extremely important aspect of a successful student is that the student must balance successful studies with healthy mental and social qualities. The student must not allow their studies to control them. They must have friends that they spend time with while also keeping up good study habits. One more key aspect is that students should be sure not to take on a course load that they cannot handle. Success is a relative term and, in my opinion, for a student to be successful, they have to have a healthy balance of strong academic performance along with a social life and mental health.
I agree that successful students need to fulfill their potentials and that success is open to interpretation. You bring up ideas I didn't really think about like how a successful student should have a stable mental health and social life. I also liked how you mentioned that successful students probably had advantages when they were younger. I agree; I just didn't think of some of this stuff when I wrote my blog.
ReplyDeleteLove the comparision to Gladwell. And you're right. At Ashland, where I'm from, in the fifth grade you are tested--if the teachers think you can do it--for a program called ALP, which is advanced learning program. Of the three kids that went to it from my school, only one is in college. The others dropped out before their fall semester was over. One girl is bad off on drugs. But theses were the successful students and the ones with the most potential.
ReplyDeleteWell roundedness is the key! I also agree with your course work point. Successful students have to know when too much is too much.
This is more of a response to what Ali said, but i remember we had the same sort of Talented and Gifted program at Fairland in elementary school. Out of the 15 or 16 students that were selected for the program in elementary school, 2 or 3 of them, i didnt hear about in high school. And one of them was arrested not too long ago. So in short, these tests do not provide an accurate representation of who will be successful in the future. Instead, they assume a child's future success based on one test.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny how things change, and the degree to which they do. This kind of goes against what Gladwell says to an extent. Those kids were pampered and put on a fast track while the others stayed with the "average" kids, and the other kids excelled more than the ALP ones.
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