Toss Writing

Once upon a time, there was a boy who dreamed of the ocean. Though he lived in the city he yearned for the smell of sea salt. He would spend most of his days admiring all kinds of goggles of all sizes and shapes, swimsuits that were of all kinds of watery smooth textures in the local marine accessory store. He would buy one of the goggles on display and at home in his small bath tub would turn the water on and pretend as if he were under the sea. The spray of the nozzle was the splash of the waves, his fallen soap a marine animal that the world had never before seen. The steamy air and the water droplets that accumulated on the worn ceiling and dripped down would be rainstorms. His bathtub was his ocean. He was the world's pirate, adventuror, and ocassionally the unlucky sailor sent to Davy Jone's locker, which happened when his bathtub clogged with hair. But his bathtub drained. The ocean never drained. As he grew older and taller his ocean became swallower. He couldn't dive as deep as he could until one day his ocean could barely contain him the only marine animal in it. Frustrated he turned the knobs of the bath tub this way and that as if opening a combination lock. Suddenly the drain opened up and he was sucked into the hole below him. Ahhhh! He barely had time to scream.

Naked, he could feel the wind howling in his ear as he fell. It was a long fall-and all of a sudden, he felt some fragrance of the sea touching the tip of his nose. There he was free. Free from the plastic tub that used to limit him. Free from the bitter scent of the old bathroom, free from the concrete jungle that made him almost impossible to breathe.

Everything was elongated as he rushed through time and space. As if in a trance he blinked slowly, letting the colors fly by his eyes. Voices, old and new maybe even from the distant future, whispered in his ears. Music to his ears and fire to his lips, the boy opened up his mouth. It was just on the tips of his tongue as voices hammered on his eardrums. They rushed through his blod streams rising in crescendo."This is everything" voices rose in harmony as wind rushed through his hair. He opened up his arms, letting the wind take him, as voices shouted in chums, calling, calling-calling out to something that had been dormant inside him. Like delicate fingers drumming on the heart of the guitar, delicate voices rang inside him, coaxing him to open himself wider and wider. The words tumbled out of his lips, not even faking those step of stairs. The boy's eyes, electric blue, opened up in shock. The deep blue folds of the ocean waves were getting closer and closer to him, but caught up in the word that just left his lips, he let himself fall. The word, that lay in him forgotten for year, decades, eons, maybe for a time longer than time itself was finally out. Bursts of air left his lungs in gasps and his senses, sensitive than ever were lit on fire. The word was....

The Leash on the Underdog (Carlos Doesn't Remember)

No pain, no gain. Work hard and you can make it. If only the equations for success were as simple as the equations that these numerous idioms give us. We all agree that equality is necessary for fair competition, but the many differences and the capitalistic society that amplifies these differences make it seem to some extent impossible. In our current society these idioms seem far outdated and a good excuse for the well-off to say to the poor, "You're in that state because you didn't put in your work like we did". Equality in education is especially important given the role education plays in our society as a certain safe haven where anyone with good grades can move up the ladder. But even within our schools and education system, there seems to be many instances in which the seesaw is made shorter on one side and longer on the other, where there is still a leash on the underdog. 

In this post, I'd like to talk about 3 things.

(2)Are there really a lot of smart and poor students out there? 
(3)Are these Carlos students really achieving their potential?
(3)Socializing

(1)the reason we seek higher education and the benefits that education gives us
Why do we seek higher education? Although some might say for the sake of studying itself, most if not all people do it because they believe that there are better job opportunities with a more prestigious diploma. It is to some degree true. Most higher paying jobs are occupied by those who went through good colleges. It seems especially in Korea that a good college ensure a good future.


(1) Are there really a lot of smart and poor students out there?
In "Carlos Doesn't Remember", Malcolm talks about an exceptional group of students; the poor and smart. He tells us that there are more of these poor and smart students than we think there are. But honestly I wasn't too convinced. I thought of the English Hakwons in Korea. How would Carlos be able to speak English without going to hakwons without being an exceptionally rare genius? Given that in Korea almost everyone goes to Hakwons it seems to me that not being able to go to the hakwons that everyone goes to severely disadvantages you. The starting line is not school, but the hakwons. That is why the performance of public schools can't be measured accurately as in many cases those numbers merely reflect  the performance of the hakwon teachers that teach the students after school. As the age kids enter hakwons seems to go down more and more this seems to pose an even bigger problem. Korean mothers nowadays go through fierce competiton to get their child into a private Pre-K school that has better English programs, they actively enroll their children in hakwons from as early as possible. I wonder what fair competition can be ensured when students who can't access such education are largely disadvantaged from a young age. It's also not entirely a matter of money as well. As mentioned in the podcast, geological distance also limits access. For example, in rural areas even if you want and can afford hakwons there just aren't any hakwons to go to in the first place.
Without access, and when a very large percentage of Korean students recieve some form of private education, I doubt there would be many good English speakers among those poor Carlos kids who couldn't afford the English hakwons.

(2)Are these Carlos students really achieving their potential?
I thought that even if these students somehow make a breakthrough, it could be a good thing for society that Carlos is doing something, but not exactly good for Carlos.
I noticed how the attitude Carlos changed towards studying and his talents changed. At first he tell us how he liked studying and math. And then later on we see that his interests in math become a means of survival. It is not the pure interest that propels him now as much as his need to take care of himself and his family. This new motivation is something that seems problematic to me. It reminds me of the civil service exam in which many talented students from all areas of society rest their lives upon. Many of these students would rather do better in would want to do better in other areas, but due to reasons outside of there control and the need for money instead choose to use their talents memorizing thick law books. Once Carlos is not allowed to be motivated by his interest in math, he has to turn to other more feasible options perhaps to engineering which guarantees better employment. This problem is especially worse in other prodigies. At least Carlos is good at studying, which is something that is recognized in Korean society. What about artists or those with other "less priority" talents. We may see many of them turning away from their talents to pursue more feasible opportunities.

(3) socializing
Another problem I thought of was socializing. The problem of Carlos achieving his potential isn't just about him getting a spot in a university, but also about how he can interact within those new environments. I was reminded of KMLA and the difficulty many rural students have when they come to KMLA. Most of the students comes from Seoul and from 4 academies. In many cases students already know each other before even coming to school some going all the way back to going to the same private elementary schools. With these relationships already there, it can be hard for a rural student to befriend such students though this also varies depending on the character of the student.

In the end, when dealing with the problem of education inequality, I think that we shouldn't just look within the schools, but also look at the society and social welfare on a broad scale. Malcolm Gladwell mentions Eric, a person who is necessary for Carlos to ever be able to continue on with his studies. Why can't it be that the government can act as Eric? We should consider why it is that students seek a social education and improve the overall environment for Carlos by providing better welfare.

The Big Man Can't Shoot

In this episode, Malcolm Gladwell tells us how the spread of ideas depends upon the openness or the threshold of the individual to accept the idea rather than how rational the idea is. I liked how the threshold argument brings back a degree of responsibility back to the individual actor. He tells us that mob mentality can't be an excuse. That being swayed has to do with how high or low our individual thresholds are. But I didn't quite get the difference between thresholds and peer pressure as even if every one has a different threshold, aren't thresholds also influenced by the others around me?

In the podcast, Malcolm Gladwell tells us that we often times do things that are irrational even though we are aware of it. To illustrate his point he uses the free throw and the NFL draft as examples.

I thought that with the free throw example, Malcolm Gladwell takes too much of a scientist's view of sports. I think he missed how sports is a competition and also at the same time a show. The reaction of the crowd seems to me an essential and natural aspect of sports itself just like the way we review movies or any TV show. If sports was solely about efficiency, players would never even practice dunks or do anything fancy.

Why would anyone go for a dunk when a normal layup achieves the same result and takes up less energy. People want to be "oohed and ahhed" and brought to their feet by some ridiculously cool move and that's why they're watching the game in the first place. I think people would rather see the player who loses, but shows them awesome moves, then the team that wins by strategically planning everything and not really giving much of a performance.  Sports stats are one thing and the number of crowd on their feet is perhaps another. (though most often than not most teams and players that show us the cool moves usually do win the game and have great stats as well) This aspect is something I think Malcolm Gladwell overlooked in his argument.

But, at the same time I do see how wanting to be cool can be problematic to a player who doesn't yet have the basics, but practices only the fancy looking maneuvers.
Playing basketball I always wanted to start with the shooting, the moves that can make me get a few points rather than doing the boring dribbling or basic passing practice.
(Below is an advertisement I was reminded of)