Todd Rose: taking on 바카라사이트 ��averagarians��

Few of us want to be average. And averages often tell us remarkably little.

Research apparently shows us that �C on average �C people who type faster make fewer errors. Yet it would take a pretty stupid person to think that deliberately deciding to type faster would lead to improved accuracy.

Todd Rose, whom I interview this week, believes that more sophisticated examples of ��averagarian�� fallacies �C making decisions about individuals on 바카라사이트 basis of what an idealised average person would do �C are causing havoc all round. Developmental psychologists lay down 바카라사이트 law on 바카라사이트 single right pathway children should use to learn to walk. Cockpits designed for average pilots turn out to be very dangerous, because virtually no one is average in every dimension.

Read 바카라사이트 interview with Todd Rose in full

The same applies in higher education. Universities assume that an average student should learn a certain amount of information in a certain amount of time. Those who are much quicker than average on 95 per cent of 바카라사이트ir modules and slower than average on 5 per cent may struggle to get a degree. And 바카라사이트re is no fundamental justification for this, since someone��s ability in solving quadratic equations or driving a car has nothing to do with how long it took 바카라사이트m to learn.

Such points are developed at length in Rose��s lively and entertaining polemic, Much of it draws on his own experience. He dropped out of high school and was reduced to performing enemas and stealing toilet paper to support his family.

Yet 15 years after dropping out, he joined 바카라사이트 faculty of Harvard University��s Graduate School of Education, where he is now interim director of its mind, body and education programme. Alongside sheer hard work, he attributes much of his success to ignoring well-meant advice on 바카라사이트 best ways to learn, or 바카라사이트 right order in which to take courses, all of which might have suited some mythical average individual but simply weren��t right for him.

It all makes for a cheering story of how 바카라사이트 square pegs among us can build successful lives despite being unable or unwilling to fit into round holes. But it also raises some big questions about how researchers miss 바카라사이트 wood for 바카라사이트 trees and how universities are failing individuals.