Critical Essay on David and Goliath: Decision Made by Impressionist and Caroline Sacks

Introduction

Caroline a high school student who is very intelligent, articulate, and thoughtful and has many stellar achievements was faced with a great choice on whether choose between an elite institution and a non-elite one. However, in the time period of coming up with the choice, Caroline made a tour to five universities and colleges that she wanted to be part of after her high school. She ended up applying for Brown University, moreover out of the five choices, University of Maryland was her contingency plan. Generally, on her choices, she decided to choose the elite institution over the non-elite institution. Comparatively, the impressionist, on the other hand, is acknowledged for knowing that the choice between the solo show and the salon was about great options that outweighed each other in weakness and strengths and not just options in terms of best and second best. Gladwell provides a better explanation of this point through the decision and the experience made by the impressionists. It is identified that the salon in Paris was recognized as a great pound in the nineteenth century and for one to be established as an artist one had to achieve the acceptance from the salon (Oh, Yuri). With the impressionist making effort after effort his work was rejected since the salon's jury standards were not clearly met. The impressionist then decided to counter this by making their own art exhibition, that with time bypass the Salon and ended up becoming the big fish in the pond that they newly created.

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According to what is expressed in chapter three, Malcolm Gladwell raises discussion on the general concept of the "little fish big pond and the big fish little pond" to provide a better description on the experience that Caroline Sacks had in college(Fornaciari). He raises a better description of the analogy that made a comparison about the pond to that of the elite universities. Additionally, he demonstrates that it is not always the best interest of an individual to choose the elite school, however, the society has placed a good value on the general education that one gain from the schools. To some extent, making a choice of "the little pond", which is expressed to be the low prestige schools and excelling in them like a big fish status is the generally the same result as attending Oxford or even Harvard schools.

"If I'd gone to the University of Maryland, I'd still be in science", says Caroline Sacks. This decision must have been guided by public notions and her financial background. Caroline did not go well with courses on science and math unlike her mates from elite schools that went smoothly from one course to the next. In the end, Caroline dropped out of majoring in chemistry whilst regretting her decision to join an elite institution over the other because all her dreams were now shattered.

In my opinion, Caroline Sacks made the right decision by choosing Brown University. The university is among the top in the country with students and academics that are diverse in terms of studies. In view of the impressionist, Caroline Sacks chose the salon over the solo show and ended up paying the price that was higher. Sacks would have been a big deal in the University of Maryland but she chose to be in one of the best universities in her country.

"Wow other people are mastering this, even people who were as clueless as I was in the beginning, and I just can't seem to learn to think in this manner".Caroline sack was a smart student who felt stupid because of attending brown university. Most elite universities think they are helping students by giving them scholarships like in the case of Caroline but instead, they end up ruining dreams. The reality is that she would have graduated with a science major if she would have gone to the University of Maryland.

Conclusion

These scholarships have had no impact on the number of students from low-income families in elite institutions because they remained alarmingly low. Most elite institutions turn down applications of students from humble backgrounds. More steps are being taken to create a balance between elite and non-elite institutions but all seams in vain. Non-elite schools don't have the ability to send students to colleges, unlike elite schools. If all elite institutions or most of them would adopt the new ways they could transform education in the fastest and most effective ways. The foresight of elite institutions to lead non-elite institutions in this direction is questionable. Our opportunities are expanded by the biggest thing that we take for granted. Most of the freedom that comes from the disadvantages that face us are ignored and underestimated just like the battle of David and Goliath is misread. In the end, our achievements are maximized by our disadvantages. This has been clearly expressed by Malcolm Gladwell through his argument about Caroline and the impressionist.

Works Cited

Oh, Yuri. "Malcolm Gladwell's David and Goliath Summary." Seoul Journal of Economics 28.1 (2015): 107.

Clifton, Rodney A., Jeremy M. Hamm, and Patti C. Parker. "Promoting effective teaching and learning in higher education." Higher Education: Handbook of theory and research. Springer, Cham, 2015. 245-274.

Fornaciari, Charles J., and J. B. Arbaugh. "Defining and Achieving Student Success at Non-Elite Schools." Organization Management Journal 14.1 (2017): 7-21.