David and Goliath: Optimal Class Size and Parental Wealth (Chapter 2)

(This is part of a chapter by chapter review of David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants, a review of the first chapter can be found here)

Many of Gladwell's critics portray him as liberally biased, in this chapter he does something to combat that.  He opens the chapter with a description of a school whose enrollment has fallen, then describes the overwhelming consensus that smaller class sizes lead to better outcomes for students.  He then uses data from many countries to show that this assumption is almost always wrong.

Then, without explanation, he switches subjects to a story of an anonymous Hollywood bigshot.  Gladwell explores the details of how the bigshot rose from humble circumstances to becoming successful and very wealthy.  He then presents some simple graphs that even people who struggle with math should understand (though math experts may find them overly simplistic).  Both class size and parental income can be described "Inverted-U curves" (Gladwell cites his father's opinion's on these curves but doesn't ever describe them with a formula, though it's clear from the picture that they're parabolas of the form y = -x² + mx + b).

The chapter ends with interesting and compelling arguments for why having a class which is too small can be as bad as having a class with too many students (students are likely to argue with each other or be afraid to share their opinions in smaller classes).  Additionally he claims that having parents with too much money is harmful because they can't reasonably deny their children anything.  The chapter ends by refocusing on the story of David and Goliath, Goliath's excess resources often work against him.