As I sit in front of my computer and try to think of blog topics that haven’t been brutally abused over the last few weeks, nothing specific comes to mind. However, a book that lies right beside me sparks an idea for this upcoming post. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell has recently, like Kreger, been my pleasure reading book of choice and contributes to the motive behind this discussion.
It seems as though our AP English class does an unusual amount of complaining about the workload given to us and trust me, I am as guilty as anyone. Although, after reading Outliers my perspective has completely shifted, hopefully for the long haul. During the book, Gladwell discusses the differences between Asian and American abilities in subjects like math and science where the typical assumption is that Asian students contain higher IQs and therefore excel beyond their American counterparts. However, contrary to that popular belief, the intellectual achievements from Asian students stem from their ability to simply outwork everyone else. Priscilla Blinco conducted an experiment which investigated the amount of time American students put into an incredibly difficult puzzle versus the amount of time from Japanese students: the Japanese lasted roughly 40% longer than the Americans before "giving up". You get the point.
The conclusion I came to after reading this passage coupled with the spirit of Thanksgiving is: I am extremely thankful AP English pushes me to my limits. Furthermore, Ms. Serensky does not allow for any of this so-called "giving up" which keeps me, at least for the time being, in stride with those darned Asians.
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