White Kids: More Skilled than Asians?
November 26, 2008
According to a 1999 American Teacher article entitled “The homework gap,” Carol Huntsinger, a professor at the College of Lake County in Illinois, compared groups of middle class Chinese American and white students from two-parent families. Starting in 1993, Huntsinger followed them from kindergarten to third and fourth grades, looking at what their parents gave them as homework.
While many education experts regard early formal teaching and rote learning as developmentally inappropriate, some Chinese American parents had their kindergartners finish math workbooks and practice letter writing for 20 minutes a day. Huntsinger found that the Chinese children just thought it was “part of their day and they enjoy it.” She also found that the Chinese American students spent large amounts of time, sometimes from a very early age, in formal instrumental music lessons and practice at home.
Not surprisingly, the Chinese students outscored their white peers in math and lagged in language in early grades, as many spoke Chinese at home. Yet by third grade, their English and vocabulary also exceeded their English-only classmates. Huntsinger didn’t find any evidence of harmful stress or lack of creativity among the Asians. (she obviously didn’t know some of the Asian kids I know.) She thought that this supported the traditional drill-and-practice over creative homework that took lots of time but didn’t actually cover much core academics.
Americans were sold on education reform largely because of the threat of Asians and the Finnish. Yet, clearly the worst thing you could do if you wanted Americans to get ahead would be to replace rote teaching and practice in favor of “where’s the math” fuzzy exploration.
While the Chinese Americans in the study earned better grades in almost every subject, the one area where teachers reported Asians lagging in skill was physical education. That was the one area where I got consistent C-for-effort grades (though my kids get As and Bs). Perhaps Asians should be worried that schools will end up forcing all kids to master power-nerding before Asians learn how to cultivate sports, music or political stars.
Youth Less Likely than Parents to Earn a Diploma?
The Education Trust recently made headlines with study results concluding that the United States is the only industrialized country where youths are less likely than their parents to earn a diploma. Something didn’t sound right, so I tracked down the alleged international Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Its studies indicate that 87 percent of Americans age 25-34 graduated, compared to 86-88 percent for other ages up to 65. But this makes no sense compared to the most recent U.S. Digest of Education Statistics, which show that the dropout rates for those aged 16-24 have declined by a factor of about three, from 27 percent during my childhood in 1960 to just 9.3 percent for my kid’s generation in 2006. Chalk it up to another alarmist figure that the media just eats up without any critical thinking.
Comments
17 Responses to “White Kids: More Skilled than Asians?”
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wow, nobody outraged with confirmations of ethnic stereotypes? did get a laught at the Palin turkey massacre video, poor woman.
There is more to being successful than having good grades. Don’t get me wrong, I agree with the rote learning part. The hard driving Asians have gotten part of this right by focusing on accademics. On the other hand, there is a lot to be learn from sports, especially group sports. It teaches you how to compete and cooperate at the same time. Skills that is useful after one comes out of college. I have always wonder why so many Asians who come out of fine first rate universities and top out so early in the corperate world, I think they are failing to develop skills that one can’t find in a book. And yes, one can develop that part without much sacrafice to the others.
Dear John:
Indeed, there is more, much more than simple stats and doctoral theses theses anent “education” and “race.”
Aside from the fact our resident guru on the subject is either blind or oblivious of Montessori for one, the fact is there are OTHER “intelligences” and other skills and, more to the point, other social and cultural values, never mknd the purely monetaryi or sociocultural, as in common wisedom prestige and position.
As for Asians, post cum laude, I give you two to one odds that the true cause for faltering or failure in the eyes of some may be laid at the door of racvism, pure and ccomplex. Meritocracy has little or nothibng to do with it. WASPishness does.
Frank,
It would be very convenient indeed to blame all this on racism. My observations, though, contradicts with your argument. I work in Silicon Valley where the none white immigrants dominate the worker bee side of things. Immigrants from other regions like India and Iran are much more adapt at rising through the corporate ladder than Asians.
The second piece of evidence is that, if there are a lot of discrimination against Asians, you would think that the few firms run by Asians are going to fair much better given the pend up talent. In fact, the opposite is observed.
While I don’t deny that there might be some discrimination, I would have to say that most of the blame must be laid on the man in the mirror.
In “White Kids: More Skilled than Asians?” it says: “Americans were sold on education reform largely because of the threat of Asians and the Finnish.” Please tell me more about the Finnish threat. What’s that about? I have a Danish friend but I’m never actually met a Finn. Should I feel threatened if I do? And how did the Finnish issue find its way into AsianWeek?
Jim Musselman
Dear John:
You are absolutely correct.
Bottom line, look in the mirror. Face yourself. KNOW yourself. And just do the best you can.
On the other hand, I think you and I are simply “talking past” one another, as in most conversations between human beings.
You speak of a today and an ambiance of which I know, literally, nothing, even as I believe I may have some inklings because of the fact I was born and raised in “Silicon Valley,” in my days, the “valley of heart’s delight” and with only a handful of “Asians” in the mix. On my birth certificate, it says “Mongolian.”
I am talking about the past centuries of Yankee clipper-ship and extraterritorial privilege , of “Christian” keys to the kingdom and Christian colleges like Lingnan U. that also boasted the enlightening and generous spirits of professors like Dr. Pauline Aiken from the Carolinas no less.
The arc of “western” colonialism predated the American of course, goihg back to the Columbuses and the Spaniards and the Portuguese and the Flemish?
My point is precisely the point Martin Jacques raised today, in the online London Guardian’s Feb. 13 edition.
Read it. It is a crucial understanding of what WAS and what IS and what MAY BE.
Bretton Woods and “racist” John Maynard Keynes for one g0es back to Kipling and earlier. Of course, the “west” could turn the tables and remind us of the Khans and Timurlane, not that i, for one, identify withi either.
Point is, to me at least, that “racism” has little or nothing to do do with “race.”
EVERY “race” and creed and color evinces the ENTIRE gamut of human nature, of the rascals and the devils, however, much more frequently than the sages and saints, forget prophets.
So, my friend, DO look into your mirror, and, please, FIND y9urself to your fullest potential and expression. That is all that truly matters.
As for those “climbing the ladder,” of whatever race or persuasion, in Silicon Valley or anywhere else on this planet today, hey! that’s human natuire.
Our individual choices and individual druthers are all that separate ox from goat or friend from “enemy.”
Personally, and literally, some, indeed the most cherished, of my friends are “white,” and some of those I rather despise are, er, ah, “nonwhite”?
So, no, “race” isn’t the dumpster for the blame game, but, for sure, as practiced and egregious in these here “benighted states of Amurrika,” along the lines of our Rush Limbaughs and our Lou Dobbses and Bill O”Reillys?, some form of aspect of racism is their calling card AND their overpaid “living.”
Sixty years ago, I could have chosen to join the Establishment ranks of the superpatriots and red-baiters, race aside, but, like you, I preferred to be able to look in the mirror and not feel ashamed.
And I have never regretted my choice.
Even as I see that “history” repeating itself, ad nauseam. And to the denigration and despair of the general public, part of which is to blame.
P.S.: It’s a zinger, isn’t it, living in such “interesting times.”
Frank,
I am having a bit of trouble following your long and rambling response full of parables and codes. Maybe a little directness and economy of words would help next time. “racism” has little or nothing to do with “race”. Do you know how absurd and funny that sounds?
I have met more than a handful of old timers who lived through your time and understand the environment from which you grew up. I can see how that could lead you to see racism and oppression from “the man” in every event and every corner.
The world today is quite different from the world you grew up. Especially in the Silicon Valley, it is mostly a meritocracy and one’s ability matters significantly more than the color of your skin.
Is there racism still? Of course there still is, but black people and Asians are just as guilty of it. This should be seen as worse since these are the people who suffer from it and should know better. In addition, there are all kinds of other discriminations against fat people, against people who dress funny etc. The successful people ignore these trivialities and focus on the things that they can change, which is to improve on themselves.
My original point was that there are weakness in the Asian culture by ignoring sports and the lessons one can learn from them. Improving this one aspect would go a long way in developing the types of skills to help Asians do even better.
Have a good day.
John
John:
Yeah, sometimes I have difficulty “following” myself.
The absurd, as Camus so deftly demonstrated, to me at least, is precisely the point about “race’” and ” racism.”
Actually, you put it plainly for me as well. True racism exists in ALL races, thus making “race” irrelevant to ” racism.”
Indeed, you and I are likely “racist” to some extent in some manner or in some specific respect, although I do make the effort to be aware of same.
That Silicon Valley today ignores, or makes that attempt, the biases and prejudices inherent in our individual conditionings is admirable.
but that still does not equare “meritocracy.” Close, but no cigar.
As for “the Man,” we’re still talking about the movers and shakers, right?
Well, even the appointments today that go well beyond “window dressing” are still mustered against the drum-roll of the presumptions and assumptions of the Establishment, which is to say, if you hold contrary stances and viewpoints, rotsa ruck. Your “qualifications” are subsumed.
There is no black-and-white about human relationships in the regard of either marketplace OR home. It’s all highly “colored” in so many different ways.
Racism, to me, means the centuries long racism of “black” or “brown” inner cities, and that includes “us” “Asians,”
And, finally, John, one may, possibly, should, step outside the box of competitive commerce and ladder-climbings to contemplate the other cosmos, that of interhuman commerce that admits of concepts other than “gain” or “position” OR even becoming “President.” Of anyithing.
Sorry for being prolix, Second nature here, or is it first? But short and succinct also poses its own conundrums and contradictions. Besides, even YOUR personal beliefs can never be other than layered and textured and, often, confused and confusing. You’re human, are you not?
All that said, I think the Mainland today is overly impressed by athleticism and the competition it represents. Far too macho and simplistic.
My personal take here is that it is much more productive, creative even, for the individual to focus on the interior competition, the best me against the worst, the focus and the training of self-knowledge and self-understanding that could, possibly, with luck and help, attain the full maturation of individual potential and promise.
Why blacken the other guy’s eyes? What price statuette? Applause and “glory”?
Leave that to the starlets and promoters.
Fame is fleeting. Indeed. Success is problematic. Beyond perception. And “power” the ultimate illusion. Aphrodisiac? Delusion?
Dubya is, sadly and incompetently here, the poster boy.
Obama is far too intelligent to fall into this category. But, then,. so was Bill. Clinton, that is. ANYone who can openly avow that today’s Israel MUST be supported, whatever the issue or consequence, stands on the wrong side of “history.”
And, John, I don’t see oppression in every aspect of “the Man.”
Indeed, I admire, love even, much of what he claims to stand for.
On another polint, I doubt very much ANYthing has really changed. Even in YOUR Silicon valley. After all, a silicon chip is just a bit of quartz? I prefer the smell of peach blossoms, or apricot, but, then, that is a purely subjective reflex and has little, or does it?, to do with what we are talking past one another about?
And, oh, is one of the “lessons” we can learn from “sports” the fact that pro sports today are nothing less than gilded promotions and diversions that have followed the “human” path into the subversions of drugs and cheatings and unmanly demonstratins of hubris?
I don’t know about you,l but, to me, Jerry Yang has yet to evince modicum one of any sense of his own greater humanity, whatever the race.
P.S.” And that goes for almost any other “successful” APA individual, man or woman, entrepreneur or exemplar. No Gandhi yet. But, then, it took millennia to produce a single one of him. And brown at that. Small in physical stature as well, Tiny? Gargantuan in the annals of time and humankind. Both as man and sage and savant and savior. That is, if we are ready and willing, able? susceptible?, to salvation.
oh, and one more thing, John.
Ywr . . .
I used to apologize, profusely, of course, to my nieces and nephews and grandnieces and grandnephews for MY generation’s overreliance on generational and age perquisites.
But, now, I am happy to see, it may w3ll be you, the youndter and youngest generations, who may owe ME, and mine, an apology for presumtptions of relevance A ND significzance.
Whazt’s age got to do with it5? Do with it?\
Not a helluva lot, I’m afraind. Either way.
Dear Frank,
You’re like the great uncle I wished I knew. We young people take for granted all the work the older generations have paved to make what society is today in America. Even APAs have taken for granted for what the Chinese and Japanese have accomplished for all APAs. Now, it’s our, if not everyone’s, turn to continue the struggle for what it could be for APAs. Like I said previously I enjoy your unique sense of writing style. It makes the reader pause to think, even deeply–something almost obsolete nowadays.
As for John, you should not make a comment stereotyping Asians: “…Asian culture ignores sports…” There may be Asians who don’t like sports for the same reasons why some white or black or brown or green people don’t like sports–they’re not coordinated. And there are plenty of Asians who do like sports and play it regularly from the time they were three to old age. Have you not heard of the North American Chinese Invitational Volleyball Tournament? Or how about local cities Asian only baseball, basketball, hockey, or football leagues? Dragon Boats ring a bell? Tennis or golf anyone? Does table tennis not count? Your statement is just as silly as your comment in regards to Frank’s poignant statement of racism. Improve yourself indeed.
Dear Linda:
May an old poot be so bold as to ask if he may be permitted to “adopt” you?
I already have umpteen blood “great”nieces and nephews, plus more than a handful of “adoptees” of many races from way way back when . . .
Biit I’m the greedy sort.
“Uncle” Frank
P.S.: You gladden my heart and not just because you respond to what thoughts I can still muster. What I mean to say here is, simply, you make me feel proud, as well as joyous that the spirit of humanity thrives in this society overwhelmed by ambition and the meretricious.
P.P.S.: And somehow, this venue must be kept open for one and all. Someone posted a note on suicide, which I was too late to pursue. I hope someone responded in a practical and helpful way.
Frank,
While there is a certain admirable quality in ignoring the outside world and focusing on the inner self, one must not divorce one self from our environments.
We are not talking about fame or title here. The way I see it, we work for two reasons, one is to provide for our selves and our family, The other is to gain satisfaction and a sense of achievement. It is by such yardsticks that success is defined. I hope you agree that, for working age people, a big part of success is the ability to provide for the family and to do something meaningful, what ever that is to the individual.
To achieve either of these objective, one must learn to deal with competition and also learn to cooperate. While one must focus on the inner self, one can not divorce from the outside world.
And yes, I have nothing but admiration for your generation that achieved so much in face of grave adversity.
Linda, it is great that we have a lot of APA in sports. I am merely responding to the article that started the conversation which said that Asian kids were doing well in reading and math, but were getting Cs and Ds in sports. Applying stereo typing blindly to an individual is wrong, but sometimes stereo types exist for a reason. It might mean that a lot more people from that group fit this stereo type. We can only improve if we see the warts.
John
Folks:
More mutterings and natterings.
One and all must know about today’s Patrick Cockburn piece in BOTH the Cockburnsses own CounterPunchings AND Info Clearing House, the latter again needful of sustenance, its Southland progenitor more than worthy, even if I can only try to help spread the “word.:
Cockburn itemizes the sad and sorry paternoster of “our” movers and shakers in Iraq wjho have made off with somethinjg between 50 and 125 billions of “tax” dollars. Other whistleblowers, y ears ago, blew THAT whistle, the obivious and egregious fact of the “industrial/military’s” non complexity of greed and corruption. Chalmers Johnson it was, on a Sunday :book” show, who harked back to the Nazi generals and admirals of WWII. What difference from the “Huns” and the “Mongols” of yore, aside from the fact the bloodletting today is colorless on the telly as opposed to gory in the past. At least to refined and civilized sensibilities such as “ours.”
Oh, and add the footnote that “we” can shock and awe in the millions by the push of a button, as well as zero in on nefarious “compounds” of conniving conspirators.
Add that monetary miasma to the morally misanthropic genuflections at the altar of “self-defense” and “security.” And what do we have? Nothing less than mindless mayhem, murder and maiming of the spirit, literal gullywashing brainwashings of torture and simple sadism.
This nation, and the Brits too, who are just beginning to unearth thie depths of THEIR culpabilities herein, shlould be ashamed, profoundly.
Those who chop off heads and hands are certainly less than civilized? What, then, are we to make of those who, bloodlessly on their part or seemingly so, push buttons and aim missiles at faraway “compounds” of their “lesser” breeds, likely better?
There are some who proclaim the “deatth” of “capitalism,” and not a moment too soo n. After all, we rejoiced at the “fall” of the Berlin Wall and the ensuing collapse, internal rot”, of Russian “communism.”
Are we in th e throes, the “death” throes that is, of “capitalism” itself?
“Isms” aside, it seems to this perch at least, that humankind’s problem resides in its own ma nifestations of greed and ambition and one-upsmanship, you know, the juvey likes of those who think and act as if “life” were a “game.”
The fact is that life is considerably gamier, and saltier, and earthlier, and has little or nothing to do with the perceptions and values of those who believe they are the “captains” of their own “ships,” never m;ind their “souls.” If they have any, that is.
The netanyahoos who dis- and misappropriate the lands and goods of their neighbors and kinsmen are the mirror images of “our” movers and shakers who enrich themselves and their bullying and finger-shaking, adding insult to injury, cohorts.
Cheneyt, today, blisters Bush for not “pardoning: Scooter Libby. Yeah, Dubya must look out for h is own, lest he step foot on soil that recognizes his cowardice and exemplary success at malingering.
Both of them should be hnoist on their individual petard for crimes against the state, never mind “humanity.”
And poor Hillary. Is she any different from Maeeleine? Or Henry, for that matter/
NONE of the foregoing, and, likely following, have a clue as to the basic essential, forgiive the alliteration of values, which is, in a word == RESPECT.
And mutual at that/
Why and how can it be so difficult for ANYone to perceive that the sine qua non for meaningful human intercourse is the justice of mutual respect.
If you cannot respect me, you cannot truly respect yourself./
\
Ye gods and little godkinses!
Will this alta=cocker never cease his rumblings?
Sadly, not until his last breath, likely.
Whatever, today’s “breath,” “ch’i?, intones:
We can all, to our own understandings at least, rent and watch the recent HBO series, “Rome.” wherein the parallel to today”s “world” is startling, to say the least.
The narrative is :rivetiing” and the implications deadly? Not to mention the faxct that the scholarly researcger, a man surnamed Stamp, has laid the g roundwork for a saga for the ages, and sages?
The dialog, on repeated viewings, is nothing less than shocking and swesome. It rings “true.” To our time as well.
And, barring the convenient presence and continuity of the stellar principals, male of course, the summoning of the Roman Empire past is nothing less than “true” and nothing more than “entertaining.”
When you watdh carefully, it is the distaff half that actually dom,inates, all five of the leading ladies as wolfish and wolfess as their helpmeets and sometimes helpless.
Imperial Rome endured for centuries, despite the Neros. “Our” new Rome seems headed for the showers in less than one. Century that is. And the gods and godkinses be thanked for that.
Time for a new condign, a new consign, a new model, outside the accursed “box” of “commerce” and “progress.” Time for a reinvigoration of all that the human spirit requires and thrives in, whatever the sect or “bible” so long as it is NOT “fundamentalist” and orhtodox and exclusionary.
Time for individual and collective “freedom” from ANY system or orthodoxy.
Time to be ttrue to the self that is true to the “other.”
I’m not sure whom I’m addressing here, but, ancient and slow as I am on the up-take these days, or is that ever and anon?, I missed the message, other than the address to me, I believe, and the notation of the minimally “admirable.”
Is it you, John?
Whatever, my response is t6at “admirable” doesn’t do it, nor does its applicability to anyone or anything matter beyond the perceptions and presumptions of the :”admirer.”
The ONLY thing that matters, or should matter, is the issue, the thought, the idea, the concept, the observation.
What makes it relevant and significant is its inherent “rightness,” as in fact and practice and implication.
I matter little if anything, as, indeed, do you.
What matters is what matters to life and living and those who make the earnest AND honest attempt to survive.
To survive honorably, that is.
And, here, by “honor” I mean self=respect and respect for others, awareness of the thou that ever resides in the “I,” and the human decency that so admits.
Write me again. In full, and perhaps I will catch the rest of the message if not the true “gist.”
P.S:.: And a very fine day to you, sir, as well.
Oh, and John:
If indeed it is you, please do not fail to read today’s online pieces in CounterPunch AND Info Clearing House.
The former for the formidable Michael Hudson’s (even if he is not listed in the Progressive Democrats of America’s list of eminent economists) take on the ongoing er, ah “meltdown” of our “financial” wizardries, never mind the sadsack wizards.
The latter a rousing if lengthy piece by none other than that apologist for Sinophilia, Martin Jacques, who is now a “pillarist” for a Beltway publisher as well as the stalwart London Guardian.
The first exceeeds my limi8t3d energy or attention span, but instinct tells me this guy is more than “right,” as in correct, but, at the same time, he seems to speak only from the viewpoint of the nag=blindered domestic Establishment, Keynesian or no.
Jacques, on the other hand, bespeaks a more truly “global” viewpoint. AND interpretation of the fireworks exploding and imploding all over the er, ah, “financial”" worldscape.
His perceptions and prognostications read, eminetnly, more “with-it” than most, and whilst a true neocon OR a subscriber to power geopolitics may presume the Dubai cityscape to be a new horizon, the rest of us may truly now be permitted to demur, as in forcing Mother Nature to renounce herself in the name of “science” and “technology”?
Not on your life. Certainly not mine.
Nor,.likely, the villagers of the original tropic tundra.
P.S.: Is AsianWeek online still alive? I hope so.
Martin Jacques is another pompous ass who retreads half-baked alarmist and nihilist “wisdom”, and the titles of his books underscore that.
No racially less-than-inclusive uberreich will be lording over the planet in the future, financially, culturally, militarily, and most certainly not informationally.
The other 6 billion or so by then, minus the assortment of fanatics, won’t be having it, especially after swearing it all off for good.
The biggest bugaboo of planetary stability and cooperation, energy and its bloody acquisition, will be solved in this coming turn of history.