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I agree with you that there is a pecking order or even a caste system illustrated here. But many good Asian students come from modest beginings and have hurdles to overcome like learning English for example a mainland Chinese, Filipino, Vietnamese, Malasian, Cambodian, Burmese, Thai or Indonesian. All of these people come from places where the income is less than half that of black Americans and Latinos who are here in the USA. Virtually none of schools they attended even approach the spendor or equipment of schools in the poorest parts of New York, Washington DC, Chicago or LA! All that can be said of their schools is the clean, tidy and well attended. So I think this rules out the arguement that school infrastructure is the reason they suceed. So how do they do it and when they show up at American Graduate Schools suceed there too. What do they have that blacks, latinos and an increasing number of white Americans lack. Well one thing it isn't is race or African culture because one of the richest ethnic groups in America first generation African immigrants (especially Ghanians) and nor is there any problem with speaking a spanish or portuguese and being hispanic/native American/African first genration South Americans (eg. Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Colombia) are almost as sucessful .
I would think a large part of it is family structure and expectations. My Asian friends in school had much more pressure at home to succeed in school. They also supported them in achieving their goals. Mediocrity was not allowed.
I would think a large part of it is family structure and expectations. My Asian friends in school had much more pressure at home to succeed in school. They also supported them in achieving their goals. Mediocrity was not allowed.
You're right, they don't sit back, wait for the teschers to put it in their heads they aren't allowed to as the Tiger Mom Dr. Amy Chua from the Phillipines states. I was amused by the flap her book raised, she was even acused of child abuse by some critics.
One of the American "values" is a disdain for intellectualism. Maybe if some of you adults tried a little harder to educate yourselves and began to value and respect intellectual effort as much as you do efforts on the sports field, some of that would rub off on your children.
Learning is a life-long venture. How many books have you read this year? If more families sat around together reading and engaging in lively discussion instead of everyone buried in their own favorite media escape, it would have some benefit.
Educators can only do so much. Attitudes towards learning begin at home. Throw out your TV, and get off the internet, and engage with your children in all the free learning events, museums, art galleries in your city. Visit the park and collect insect specimens, or different types of leaves. Learning has less to do with throwing money at a system, than it does families helping their children value learning, value books, and developing a critical and enquiring mind. That's what I'd tell the average family.
Many American parents are expecting schools to do what they should be doing themselves.
One of the American "values" is a disdain for intellectualism. Maybe if some of you adults tried a little harder to educate yourselves and began to value and respect intellectual effort as much as you do efforts on the sports field, some of that would rub off on your children.
Learning is a life-long venture. How many books have you read this year? If more families sat around together reading and engaging in lively discussion instead of everyone buried in their own favorite media escape, it would have some benefit.
Educators can only do so much. Attitudes towards learning begin at home. Throw out your TV, and get off the internet, and engage with your children in all the free learning events, museums, art galleries in your city. Visit the park and collect insect specimens, or different types of leaves. Learning has less to do with throwing money at a system, than it does families helping their children value learning, value books, and developing a critical and enquiring mind. That's what I'd tell the average family.
Many American parents are expecting schools to do what they should be doing themselves.
Yeah that is total crap, we just have a system of education they hates competition and accepting the fact some kids learn faster and are smarter then other, not everyone can be exceptional, but we can all be reduced to the lowest common denominator.
We can have the lowest performing kids and their parents feel bad, so lets bring every down to their level, it wont have any ill long term effects.
That right is such total bunk, Why about the many channels about history, science, and many cool things.
Plus the net is the greatest library that is always open..
One of the American "values" is a disdain for intellectualism. Maybe if some of you adults tried a little harder to educate yourselves and began to value and respect intellectual effort as much as you do efforts on the sports field, some of that would rub off on your children.
Learning is a life-long venture. How many books have you read this year? If more families sat around together reading and engaging in lively discussion instead of everyone buried in their own favorite media escape, it would have some benefit.
Educators can only do so much. Attitudes towards learning begin at home. Throw out your TV, and get off the internet, and engage with your children in all the free learning events, museums, art galleries in your city. Visit the park and collect insect specimens, or different types of leaves. Learning has less to do with throwing money at a system, than it does families helping their children value learning, value books, and developing a critical and enquiring mind. That's what I'd tell the average family.
Many American parents are expecting schools to do what they should be doing themselves.
"Maybe if some of you adults tried a little harder to educate yourselves..." That is real funny coming from you.
Yeah that is total crap, we just have a system of education they hates competition and accepting the fact some kids learn faster and are smarter then other, not everyone can be exceptional, but we can all be reduced to the lowest common denominator.
I don't think that this mindset is driven by the education system. I think most of it is based on public policy...mostly devised by liberals, executed and enforced in a lot of cases by conservatives.
I don't think that this mindset is driven by the education system. I think most of it is based on public policy...mostly devised by liberals, executed and enforced in a lot of cases by conservatives.
No. Conservatives want school vouchers so that school admissions can be selective. That would mirror our post-secondary public education system, which is the best in the world. Because of selective admissions in the post-secondary public education system, students are mostly grouped by skill level/ability. The result is a world-class system. That is not true of public K-12 in the U.S. In fact, public K-12 in the U.S. lags that in most industrialized countries:
I don't think that this mindset is driven by the education system. I think most of it is based on public policy...mostly devised by liberals, executed and enforced in a lot of cases by conservatives.
Everyone is just going along trying to avoid being smeared as a racist. Meanwhile the kids suffer.
Everyone is just going along trying to avoid being smeared as a racist. Meanwhile the kids suffer.
Smart people won't let their kids suffer.
They will move if necessary and give up a lot to insure a good schooling for their kids.
I say let the rest wallow in their grand delusion that US K-12 education is the greatest on earth.
Critical thinking can't be taught anymore than comprehension can be taught.
Answering 50 questions correctly means more than a 4 year college degree in that subject.
The coach always gets a teaching position even if they have to create one for him.
When budgets are cut the classroom is the first to feel the effects while those directors and specialists that have their own offices get raises.
I'm in schools still running Windows XP, using Office 2005 on Intel 486 machines in their computer labs to teach "21st Century skills".
I'm in schools where 3 new non teaching positions just got created and we're using duck tape to fix headphones and monitor cables.
Go to the education donate site and you'll see wealthy upper middle class schools looking for "donations".
I say give it up and let education take it's course.
I view teaching as "I'll try to teach them in spite of the system".
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