"Outliers, like myself, tend to upset statisticians. We skew average measurements of how an experience ought to be. But what if…what if that is exactly what they are there for:
—to account for the oddities,
—and to make accountable the factors that cause these oddities to exist.
If the purported value is in pulling us all up towards that golden mean, then how exactly will you unburden us of all the things that mark us as an outlier? Or are you willing to change your mean to meet us?"
My entire entry can be read here: http://bild-lida.ca/blog/uncategorized/a-not-so-null-hypothesis-by-rhonda-chung/#more-2090
BILD is a critical sociolinguistic blog started by members of McGill's Department of Integrated Studies in Education with the goal of discussing our language experiences in the multilingual setting of Montreal