Davis Rimm Chapters 9-10 pages 208-242

I already read them. Promise.


The two homework chapters stand out to me in that they are filled with Useful Content. You ever read anything by Stephen King? That little bit of personification is Kingian. How long will it be before that becomes a word? Is it already?


I'd first like to tie these chapters back to an idea or discussion one of my teachers posed last class. It's the idea, and you'll have to work with me on this one, that once we become sufficiently advanced in any aspect of life, the advances become commonplace. I believe the example Dr. Connell used was with athletic shoes. Every fancy shoe we have today, available for purchase in your average came about because at one time, a gifted athlete needed an edge. Advances in prosthetic legs come from one- and no-legged athletes.

So here's my connection. And there are two parts. One involves golf. When an industry becomes sufficiently advance in addressing its gifted population (the gifted athletes, the advanced drivers, etc), the advances become mundane and commonplace. Everyone receives the benefit of NASCAR's advances. Everyone drives a better car because they want to go one mile-per-hour faster. The shoes on my feet right now are the result of research done, not with a lowly teacher in mind, but with a long-distance runner, a sprinter, a raquetball player, and a casual jogger in mind. Thoughts of me were so distant, they didn't even cross the mind of the custodian who cleaned the building next door to the building where the research took place.

Follow that one.

And the second example. I like golf. I'm not great, but I'm just above a hacker, a duffer. Recently--and since I play golf only once or twice a year when I'm lucky, recently boils down to sometime in the past two years--I have started to move away from technologically-advanced, bubble-shafted, custon-fitted fancy clubs and now use wooden woods. That's how they started. I have found no great difference in my game (remember I admitted that I am no professional player) when I borrow one of my father's latest and greatest innovations. My irons are also decades out of date.

The point? Phase one: we recognize the need for acceleration of our advanced learners, the gifted segment of the population. Phase two: we develop materials and methodologies to assist in the advancement of our gifted population. Phase three: the advancements for the gifted become so commonplace and so generally accepted that the average man, woman, and child reap the benefits of the higher order thinking--everyone gets to use the fancy toys that were once reserved for the top 1% of the population. Phase four: we reject the advancements and return to the nostalgic methodologies. Directors produce black and white movies. Authors don't publish their books digitally. Painters use actual paintbrushes and slabs of wood or end up painting on cave walls like they did in the old days. Okay, maybe that last one is a stretch, but you get the point. Hell, people refuse to let go of records. No matter how advanced CD and MP3 technologies are today, there are still current, popular, and intelligent artists releasing albums on analog records. At least no one is calling for a return to cassette tapes (but you can still find 8-tracks at any flea market around the country). Phase five is the same as phase one.

It is possible to skip phase four altogether. An alternate version of phase four is a return to phase one. Further advancement of the gifted mind to excel beyond the artifically created equality.