Section 1:
- In Chapter 4 we learn more about the genius
Christopher Langan. His mother was estranged from her family. His father was an abusive dead-beat. - He won and then lost a scholarship at Reed College when his mother failed to fill out the paperwork. He transferred to Montana State University only to leave when a professor showed no interest in helping him. And he ended up working factory jobs and as as bouncer for a bar on Long Island.
Section 3:
Summarizes a study done by a sociologist named Annette Lareau to explain the difference between parenting skills. Wealthy families engaged in a “concerted cultivation” style of parenting and were more involved in their children’s scheduling and tried to actively foster their child’s “talents, opinions and skills.” Parents in poor families, by contrast, had a more hands-off approach.
Section 4:
-In Section four we learn a little bit more about Oppenheimer and his backround and we learn why he is the way he is
-We learn the Oppenheimer had practical intelligence and Langan did not
-Oppenheimer comes from a very wealthy family and had many cultural advatanges as a kid
-He went to a wealthy and prestegoius school, the school of central park west
-As a kid he collected rocks and was very interested in them. He would even go to geologist to talk about them and his collection
- He was asked to give a speech to the New York Mineralogical club
-He did not want to, but his parents wanted him to do it, this is an example of concerted cultivation
- He ended up giving a good speech
-The opportunities he had growing up such as school, his parents, harvard is why he handeled challenges so brilliantly
-If Langan were to be born into a wealthier family then things would have been different for him
Section 5:
- the Termites (a group of people who were considered genius children) were observed by Terman when they got into their adulthood to see who became successful and who didn’t
- Terman found that the top 20% were very successful, with jobs such as a lawyer, physician, or other academic position. The middle 60% were doing satisfactory. The bottom 20% had done the least with their mental ability. They had jobs such as postal workers and some didn’t have a job at all.
- Terman wanted to see why some of the people grew to be such failures if they were all considered brilliant as children
- He found that the only thing that mattered in the success of these Termites was family background
- The top 20% overwhelmingly came from the middle and upper class and the bottom 20% came from lower class families. About a third of this group had a parent who had dropped out of school before the eighth grade
- The lower 20% lacked a community that prepared them for the world.
Section 6:
- In chapter four section six we learn that Chris Langan is Above normal intelligence immensely. No one would ever suspect this because Chris looks nothing of the part. Chris is a big muscled country boy, someone you wouldn't expect to be a super genius. It seems as if Chris wasted his oppurtunity, he never pursued agents or publishers like he should have. He had the intelligence he just didn't have the will power.Chris struggled through everyday life because he felt like an outsider because he had a hard time with social skills, he could barely talk to his calculus teacher.