Reading & Discussion 17 Outliers Chapter 9 “Marita’s Bargain” & Epilogue “A Jamaican Story”

What to do:

Choose and identify your response to one of the prompts listed below:

• Respond in 150+ words. 
• Because of the sensitive nature of Gladwell’s “Epilogue,” your response should be/needs to be very carefully considered, thoughtful, and mature.
• I hope that you are able to use your experience and knowledge gained in sociology and history classes in your response.

Choose one of the three options listed below for your first post:

Option 1:

• In a carefully considered response, discuss and express your thoughts about Gladwell’s ideas, story-telling, and purposes in the Epilogue, “A Jamaican Story”  that conclude Outliers.
• Concentrate your attention on the question, What does “A Jamaican Story” have to do with “the story of success”? 
• As you craft your response, include Gladwell’s topics of opportunity and legacy, race, slavery, gender, birth date, the right time & the right place, etc.       

Option 2:

• Consider the choice of the word “bargain” in the title of chapter 9, “Marita’s Bargain.”
• What associations might a reader might have with the use of the word, bargain? (Hint: there are several.)
• How does the use of the word “bargain” color our interpretation of Marita’s choice to attend KIPP?  The dictionary definition of bargain.Links to an external site.

Option 3:

• What important things are suggested by the effects of summer vacation on childhood learning, especially the effects of socioeconomic class and race? (Part 3, 255-260).
• Describe and develop your thoughts about those effects.