Chapter 2: Chapter two, Robbins explains the impact of Asian culture and expectations on Asian American students, especially where education is concerned. She also talks about how the problem of overachieving is universal across our entire country, not just in affluent areas or at well-known high schools.…
Today in America education is not highly valued in our society as it were in the past As our education value decline other country in Asia (such as China, Japan, Korea, India, Pakistan, e.t.c) excel over us. After reading the article “Why They Excel” by Fox Butterfield I began to understand some of the reason why Asia excels. Butterfield clearly state that American students are not doing as well as Asia student because American family are not getting involve/supporting in their children school life. And also it’s hard work, motivation, and how we’re raised. I believe this is true because many Americans have lost their value of hard work to succeed in life; instead they rely on talent alone.…
The writer in the excerpt Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior, Amy Chua, does a great job of justifying Chinese-style parenting by contrasting it to Western-style parenting. She tells her audience that through her strict orders and threats does her daughter, Lulu, succeed in playing and mastering a very difficult piano piece; Western parents with high concerns for their kids’ psyches would only “ask their kids to try their best.” Chua also reveals the generality of Chinese parents constantly working their children by making use of every moment of time possible at any cost, whereas Western parents would give up when their children puts up any form of resistance. Western parents will persuade themselves that they are not disappointed in how their children are. While through the multitude of resolute practices, the children of Chinese parents will develop high quality skills, and unyielding confidence.…
The two family types I have chosen to compare are the Hispanic/Latino families and the Asian families. Similarities between the two are that they both have strong family ties. Both support the family, meaning the extended family and/or elders within their family unit. Parents and children will work to economically support the family. Also, extended family members may live under one roof.…
To begin, the quote from "Lives on the Boundary," by Mike Rose reads "More often than we admit a failed education is social more than intellectual in origin." To me when Rose states this he gives examples of people like Caroline and Thuy Anh. They came from two different social backgrounds and their in the same class for the same reason. It's not because they don't have the intellectual knowledge to read and write. It's because of there childhood. They had to put other things first rather than they're education. Another example is of the dark-skinned boy, who perhaps is Guatemalan. So much has happened from his past that he now is causing trouble. His name is Mario. He paints these pictures about negative things (beggars, eyes on billboards, skeletal homeboys, etc) because that's what he remembers from the place he was born. He's not able to learn because that's what's in his head. Socially things have happened to him has affected his learning abilities. "It is an astounding challenge: the complex and wrenching struggle to actualize the potential not only of the privileged but, too of those who have. . . . ." What I get from this is that people who struggle no matter from what they're background is can overcome. Also sometimes with the help of a teacher/teacher's encouragement you can strive to do better. That's exactly what Chin did. One of his elementary school teachers told him that his writing was poor, and that he didn't know many words. Chin didn't take that as a negative thing and quit school. He encouraged his self to do better not only for him but his family. He kept going to school, entered himself in a literacy program at a community college and began making progress. "This painful but generative mix of language, and story can result in clash and dislocation in our communities, but it also gives rise to new speech, new stories, and once we appreciate the richness of it, new invitations to literacy." What I get from this quote is best illustrated by Rose…
Not all Asian American’s are outstanding people who have no problems. All of us do not share success. Some of us have learning complications, cannot speak English very well, and lack enthusiasm. Most of our parents who do not understand the American culture here in the United States often face cultural transformations, linguistic barriers, etc. as well. In the workplace, we are often overlooked. It is hard for us to find employment, even if we are qualified for the profession. While obtaining our education, we are often times held to a high standard set by our educators which can be detrimental to our mental health and wellbeing. We are assumed to be brilliant, hard-working, over achievers that is guaranteed a successful future. Throughout my period in different schools, expectations for me have always been high because of the fact that I am an Asian American man. Comments such as “Oh, you’re Asian, so you must be smart!”, “You failed your chemistry test? But you’re Asian!” have always been thrown at…
What is the best way to bring up a child, let them choose their own activities in school and after school, let them have play dates, play videogames and let them choose their way in life, and let learn that is okay to make mistakes like the western upbringing or the Chinese way, where you decide what’s best for the child, don’t give them any spare time and demands perfect grades, which way will create a happy child. Amy Chua has chosen the second upbringing for her children, and is defending the Chinese mothers in the article “Why Chinese mothers are superior”.…
The Japanese Americans were given a number per family, causing many couples who did not want to be separated marry quickly so that they would receive the same number. After they were given their number, they were placed in a vehicle that could be a car, truck, bus or even a train. Arriving at the camp in tense filled air, the Japanese Americans all knew that they would be spending the next oncoming years at this camp. When they exited of of whatever vehicle they were placed on, they were greeted with sand storms and unfinished barracks. Each family was assigned with one or two, depending on how large the family was, barracks where they would sleep until it was time to leave. Many of these buildings were unfinished and poorly put together. Sand…
I believe values held by scholars do affect their interpretation of ethnic families. We can take two different ethnic scientists with different backgrounds from the article for an example. According to Daniel Moynihan (1965), a white scientist, black families were deteriorating and were also dysfunctional. Moynihan (1965) went on and recommended social policies that would encourage black families to use more ways of functioning like the majority of other white families were. As for Robert Hill (1972), a black scientist, he saw…
The essay Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior, by the recognized lawyer and author, Amy Chua, is an essay that as the title might suggest, talks about why the Chinese way of raising children is an improved and preferable way of parenting compared to the “Western” style. Daughter of two successful and very strict Chinese immigrants to the United States, Chua herself was raised under the severe stereotypical Chinese way of parenting. She earned her credibility, and the “right” to talk about this subject by demonstrating that in fact, being raised under a strict Chinese way of parenting tends to pay off. Not only did she become successful herself, but Mrs. Chua has raised two outstanding daughters, Louisa who is currently studying History at Harvard College, and Sophia who graduated in 2015 and is currently attending Yale Law School.…
Academic achievement and upward mobility are viewed as an obligation for the maintenance of the family, which is the responsibility of all family members. Additionally, Asian parents teach their children to respect authority, feel responsibility for relatives, and show self-control.…
This closeness acts as an aid for success. When Asian-American students felt that they were failing, their brain automatically thought of their mother and the child found energy in that pressure to help bounce back (a fact that is also supported by the California study). In Asian culture, it is excepted that the mother pushes their child greatly towards success. This interdependence between mother and child is the trait that creates the power behind a mother's pressure. A defining trait of “Tiger Moms” is that they don’t just give an order to their children, they completely engulf their own life with their child’s. The mother keeps complete track of their child’s whole schedule, their assignments due, the instrumental practices, and helps them keep commitments. The extra support and pressure from their mothers are believed by the culture to help create efficient and dependable members of society (Parker,2014). In European- American families, there is normally a lot strained on being independent, and allowing a child to make their own decisions. This helps create a more creative child, but not necessarily a more successful one. “Most researchers investigate how a child is brought up” (Ember & Ember, 2014, page 62-63) when they are researching or investigating disobedient vs obedient children in the classroom. This is why studies have shown that “tiger moms” raise better-behaving children in school. In summary, Asian-American mothers are more forceful of decisions in their child’s life, which creates more obedient…
Regarding race and ethnicity, there is an amazing child with Asian descent named Yet Kwai. English is her second language, and her family only speaks Mandarin. While she gets help for reading, her proficiency and comprehension lack significantly. To my surprise, she grades on the same scale as all the English speaking children. Does that mean the educational system views her as equal and has confidence in her ability to excel, or does it mean the system is purposely designed for her to…
'Jim Stigler was in an awkward position. Fascinated by the fact that Asian students routinely do better than American kids at elementary math, the UCLA psychologist wanted to test whether persistence might be the key factor. So he designed and administered an experiment in which he gave the same insolvable math problem to separate small groups of Japanese and American children. 2 Sure enough, most American kids attacked the problem, struggled briefly—then gave up. The Japanese kids, however, worked on and on and on. Eventually, Stigler stopped the experiment when it began to feel inhumane: If the Japanese kids were uninterrupted, they seemed willing to plow on indefinitely. 3 "The Japanese kids assumed that if they kept working, they'd eventually get it," Stigler recalls. "The Americans thought, 'Either you get it or you don't.'" 4 Stigler's work, detailed in his 1992 book The Learning Gap (Summit, Books/Simon & Schuster), shatters our stereotypical notion that Asian education relies on rote and drill. In fact, Japanese and Chinese elementary schoolteachers believe that their chief task is to stimulate thinking. They tell their students that anyone who thinks long enough about a problem can move toward its solution. 5 Stigler concludes that the Asian belief in hard work as the key to success is one reason why Asians outperform us academically. Americans are persuaded that success in school requires inborn…
Why They Excel by Fox Butterfield explores the differences in academic success between Asian-Americans and white Americans. It uses studies, statistics, and personal experiences to discuss an interesting occurrence in the American schooling system that seems to be independent of the system itself. America’s schools are not, Fox argues, breeding this phenomenon-though they could be changed to create higher levels of academic success for all-but rather simply standing witness to it. So what, exactly, is causing these higher grades, GPAs, and overall higher levels of academic success? Fox believes it is work ethic, and more specifically the difference among levels of work ethics in varying ethnic, socioeconomic,…