Achieving Asians

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  • #3494

    Kelly-B
    Participant
    Why are Asian students (Chinese, Korean, etc) most often the highest achievers in school? Throughout my years in school from elementary school all the way to college, the highest GPAs belong to Asian students.

    User Detail :  

    Name : Kelly-B, Gender : F, Race : White/Caucasian, Age : 24, City : Hempstead, State : NY Country : United States, 
    #36990

    Arnold Urbonas
    Participant
    In my opinion, Asians and other people who place a high value on GPA will do well. Students who are involved with choir, baseball, football, chess club, frat club, etc. are spread too thin to say "my school marks are important." Everyone chooses what is most important to them.

    User Detail :  

    Name : Arnold Urbonas, Gender : M, Race : White/Caucasian, City : Edmonton, State : NA Country : Canada, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, 
    #40851

    Sarah-C28371
    Participant
    It's because Asian parents tend to have higher academic standards for their kids. I'm feeding into a stereotype here, but it's true. They keep a closer social rein on their kids, too. When you go out on a Saturday night, you don't often see a lot of Asian kids hanging out. Their parents either discourage or do not encourage behavior like this (luckily, I was spared). They're home doing homework.

    User Detail :  

    Name : Sarah-C28371, Gender : F, Race : Asian, Religion : Agnostic, City : San Francisco, State : CA Country : United States, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class, 
    #19935

    JC31136
    Participant
    I think you can put Asian in two categories: those who immigrated here and those who were born here. For the first group, they came here with the cultural background of being encouraged to achieve academically more than anything else. Also, the school curriculum in Asia is generally much tougher than those in U.S. high schools. I remember that I started learning calculus when I was 14. So when the first group got here, they just excelled in school easily. However, for the second group, for those born here, unless they still have very strong cultural backgrounds tied to their family upbringing, they are not much different than non-Asians in terms of academic performance. In addition, many Asians are discriminated against or feel disadvantaged in other aspects in school, such as sports and social circles. The only thing, then, that Asians feel they can compete and win in fair and square is academics. So they spend more time studying and learning. Moreover, our society strongly rewards those who have high educations with good jobs. So there you go!

    User Detail :  

    Name : JC31136, Gender : M, Race : Asian, Age : 30, City : Boston, State : MA Country : United States, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 
    #38894

    Ed-M25554
    Participant
    As much as some people may not like to hear it, there is a correlation between the fact that it has been repeatedly proven that Asians tend to have larger heads, larger brains and higher IQs than other races and that Asians score better academically (on average) than other races. To pretend this truth does not exist or does not have a bearing on this matter is to 'stick one's head in the sand.' The attempts to explain it as being a case of Asians being socially inept nerds who have nothing better to do than study is just more of the racist, stereotypical hogwash that cannot allow anything positive about Asians and Asian Americans to be said in the United States.

    User Detail :  

    Name : Ed-M25554, Gender : M, City : Portland, State : OR Country : United States, Education level : 4 Years of College, 
    #29813

    Kate26610
    Participant
    If the above statement is true, why don't Asian-Americans and Asian-Canadians do as well as immigrants? I'm of Chinese descent, and I didn't do nearly as well as many of my non-Asian peers in high school.

    User Detail :  

    Name : Kate26610, Gender : F, Age : 22, City : Somewhere, State : NA Country : Canada, Occupation : Student, Social class : Upper middle class, 
    #19967

    J. L.
    Member
    Ed, this goes back to all the pseudo-sciences of the 19th century, like phrenology - the study of intelligence based on cranial capacity. When they filled Albert Einstein's skull with bits of lead, they found that his cranium was of unexceptional size. A good book to consult about all the pseudo- intelligence-measuring sciences in the past is Stephen Jay Gould's The Mismeasure of Man. According to his book, there doen't seem to be any correlation between cranial capacity and IQ. The question of 'Emotional Intelligence' (EI) also comes up. I am not well-read in psych literature, but EI seems to be a better indicator of performance than IQ. Also, drawing on something that I had read recently, Max Weber's theory that religion fuels social change may have some bearing on the question of 'why do Asians do well academically?' The Protestant work ethic, argued Weber, made Americans determined to work hard and succeed. Though he argued against other religions as being too steeped in 'magic' (including Confucianism) to pave the way to social rationalization, I think he still says something very important. It seem to me that the religious or philosophical beliefs of a group provide the impetus for social/financial/academic achievement. I think educators are well aware of the greater emphasis East and South Asian cultures place on academic achievement, and they encourage Americans to change their attitudes toward education.

    Now, if you combine the cultural belief in academic achievement with individual emotional IQ (drive, determination, focus), you WILL get a group of people who are determined to academically achieve at all costs! (As a side note, I want to point out that the ethnic groups with the highest academic achievement are from ancient cultures - China, India, Japan, etc. Do the lessons of history teach people a thing or two about success and failure? Do very old cultures possess some kind of flexibility that withstands the tests of time and endows its members with unique tools for success?).

    User Detail :  

    Name : J. L., Gender : F, Race : Asian, Age : 26, City : Jersey City, State : NJ Country : United States, Occupation : Student, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, 
    #18610

    Ed25574
    Participant
    The fact that you, one person, did not score particularly well in school does not represent a significant statistical sample. The fact is that Asian American and Asian Canadian students do score higher than the general population, although not quite as high as immigrant Asians. The small difference between immigrant Asians and Asian Americans may be explained by differences in cultural approach to education, but assuming Asian Americans and Asian Canadians put forth similar efforts to other North Americans, the difference in outcomes is explained by IQ differences. Do you not think that it is of significance in the measure of intelligence that Asians tend to score higher no matter where in the world or in what country or culture you compare them to other groups? Don't be so afraid to accept a positive trait, when so many people are quick to accept all the negative propaganda about us, i.e., we all have kimchi breath, we're all nerds, we're meek and submissive, and on and on.

    User Detail :  

    Name : Ed25574, Gender : M, City : Portland, State : OR Country : United States, 
    #30408

    April
    Participant
    As someone else posted , I think you should know the difference btewwen the Asian studetns who just arrived and the Asian-americans who were born here. There is a difference in the way people are raised itn their home country and here as well as the school systems. Throughout school most of my teacher had one look at me and thought I would be the whiz kid. Alas,I proved a big dissapointment when I failed to acheive straigh A's. don't get me wrong, I was a good student but I was not he highest achiever in shcool at all. I felt this enormous pressure because I was expected to fit that sterotype.

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    Name : April, Gender : F, Race : Filipina, Age : 25, City : Chicago, State : IL Country : United States, Education level : 2 Years of College, 
    #45617

    Jamie
    Member
    In my life, I have met Asian friends through school from a variety of ethnic and religious origins: Chinese, Laotian, Korean, Japanese, Sikh/East Indian, Pakistani/Muslim, Filipino/Catholic. The common denominator in every one, including myself, was that since childhood, their parents put an amazing amount of pressure on them to 'be the best' in school, with the purpose of eventually gaining a parentally-approved career that would be financially-lucrative. Many of us bought into the pressure when we were younger, since just like anyone else, we desperately wanted signs of parental approval (which is considered the same as love, when you're young and any kind of disapproval felt like they hated you). As a result, we did extremely well in school. It didn't mean that we all did well; the majority of us did, but as we got older, our motivations changed and thus so did our grades. For some of us, parental control extended far beyond academic pressure. Even in high school, (and for some college) as long as we lived at home, it pervaded into our social lives to the extent of trying to prevent us from dating, extra-curricular activities, or staying out past 10pm since these they figured would interfere with our scholastic achievement. When we became adults, our reactions to this pressure at home were one of two: some of us, fed up with having to sacrifice our own happiness and growing identities (as well as not being treated as adults despite always being responsible) for pleasing our parents, decided to move out; others decided to tow the line in exchange for staying at home, either convinced that their parents were always right or that they simply had to play the game in order to get respect. To this day, the parents of my Asian friends continue to exercise control over their careers ---the result of which has been that many of them have had to set aside artistic or musical talents for the sake of 'real jobs' in Pharmacy or Dentistry. In constrast, throughout my life I have had just as many, if not more, Caucasian friends, whose parents --- luckily for them --- put less pressure on their children and were more apt to say, 'As long as you do your best, that's all that matters.'

    User Detail :  

    Name : Jamie, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Asian, Religion : Humanist, Age : 24, City : Winnipeg, State : NA Country : Canada, Occupation : Student, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, 
    #24514

    Kris26227
    Participant
    It's a stereotype. I'll give you an example. I'm Asian American, and I was in Calculus AP my junior year. There were several sessions of the class each day. I was in one of them, and there were about seven Asian kids of Chinese, Indian and Korean ancestry in the class of 35. Other sessions had similar makeups. All through that year, as in other years and other classes, people kept saying, "Oh, you know all the Asian kids will do well," or "Well, you're Asian so you're smart" or "Oh, how come all the Asians are so smart?" The reality was that the 28 other smart kids in the class were white. But no one said, "Hey, how come the white kids are so smart?" The reason is that people succumbed to stereotypes.

    User Detail :  

    Name : Kris26227, Gender : F, Race : Asian American, City : Ann Arbor, State : MI Country : United States, 
    #42461

    Monique20351
    Participant
    My parents both immigrated to America, and had it not been for their educations, they'd probably be waiting tables in some dead end restaurant in America, or living miserably in Asia. Being educated is what liberated many asians from their plight, and they instilled this into their children. On top of this, education is revered in Asian culture. So is filial piety. So if the parents want their child to study, the child will. I know where you're coming from-- There were only 2 people who weren't asian in Honor Society (then again, caucasians were a minority at my school)

    User Detail :  

    Name : Monique20351, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Asian, Religion : Catholic, Age : 18, City : Monterey, State : CA Country : United States, Occupation : Student, Education level : High School Diploma, Social class : Middle class, 
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