And a great article in the NYTIMES about the high-achieving immigrants and slacker locals. Now try to guess which group will go to college to count microaggressions and demand nurture and which to study.
An Ethnic Divide in a School District
Opinions, art, debate
Clarissa's Blog 
I see another side from the quoted passages (my thoughts below):
// In the previous school year, 120 middle and high school students were recommended for mental health assessments; 40 were hospitalized //
AND
// Asian-American students have been avid participants in a state program that permits them to take summer classes off campus for high school credit, allowing them to maximize the number of honors and Advanced Placement classes they can take, another practice that Dr. Aderhold is limiting this school year.
With many Asian-American children attending supplemental instructional programs, there is a perception among some white families that the elementary school curriculum is being sped up to accommodate them.//
MY THOUGHTS:
I see that those Asian-American first generation immigrant parents are channeling their immigration traumas at their kids. (Is there such an expression “channel a trauma”? What is the correct phrase?)
You would be against those parents adopting Amy Chua’s behaviors you wrote about here:
https://clarissasblog.com/2011/01/12/a-yale-professor-is-proud-of-being-a-child-abuser-and-a-racist/
However, the article reminded me of Amy Chua. Why should elementary school students be pushed into 1001 supplemental programs, summer classes and
\ the district’s advanced mathematics program, which once began in the fourth grade but will now start in the sixth
? Do they have any time to ” choose their own extracurricular activities” or “watch TV or play computer games”? (Things Amy forbids.) Can they “not play the piano or violin” (which Amy forbids too), considering that “Asian-American parents are enthusiastic supporters of the competitive instrumental music program”?
I know people who studied with me at high school and succeeded professionally (two doctors, a programmer, etc) without adopting such behaviors. I believe both children and adults should have holidays, time to rest and ideally not live under constant pressure.
I do not believe maximizing “the number of honors and Advanced Placement classes” at high school is a good in itself. People should study what interests them and / or what will be useful for their future career, not swallow everything and anything within their reach indiscriminately, like a shark.
I am all for learning and for high standards, but there may be a grain of truth in the claim that “the district’s increasingly pressured atmosphere as antithetical to learning.” People need (free) time to learn and develop intellectually and as individuals. Forcing one’s child into every program from age zero works against that.
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American school program is anything but onerous, believe me. And the article is written by somebody who is hostile to the Asian immigrants.
All I’ve seen in American schools (and in their results) is an extremely relaxed atmosphere. The reason why kids see it as hugely stressful is that they are raised by drama -queenish parents who wail about “wage slavery” and “extreme stress” of an office job.
I was recently at a group meeting with a doctor. The doctor asked us if we were experiencing any stress. All American attendees declared that they were experiencing “horrific” stress. All immigrant attendees looked completely confused by the question. Healthwise, the person in the most serious situation was me. Yet I had no “stress” to report. It’s a cultural thing.
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\ All I’ve seen in American schools (and in their results) is an extremely relaxed atmosphere.
Was it “extremely relaxed” in comparison with Soviet high schools?
At Israeli high schools, highly achieving students do have to make quite an effort in order to succeed in compulsory and several elective subjects. Wiki compares Bagrut (the official Israeli matriculation certificate) exams to ” the New York State Regents’ Exams and ETS Advanced Placement (AP) tests.” I do not think American high schools are worse academically than Israeli ones. 🙂
Personally, I had to invest a lot in my high school studies to succeed, but may be we define “onerous” differently. For you, considering the difficulties you overcame after immigrating, it would very likely seem a walk in the park. 🙂
Btw, I got an impression that American high school students (and those in the article in particular) are pushed into extracurricular activities in order to put them on a resumer later and be accepted into a good college. Do you think colleges do right to consider those activites among Admissions Criteria? Who cares if a future doctor, engineer or literature prof was a president of some school club or played sports?
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Colleges have no choice when they get thousands of applications with the same 4.0 grade point average. They need a way to differentiate these students from each other and extracurriculars are what’s left.
This is a globalizing world, and these children will grow up and will have to compete with people who don’t fall apart because of microaggressions. No matter how many tantrums their parents throw today, that’s reality. Of course, expecting them to look at themselves with an ounce of self-awareness is too much. But all these college students who are freaking out because somebody looked at them the wrong way do come from somewhere. And those very parents who made them this way will then blame professors.
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I was recently at a group meeting with a doctor. The doctor asked us if we were experiencing any stress. All American attendees declared that they were experiencing “horrific” stress. All immigrant attendees looked completely confused by the question. Healthwise, the person in the most serious situation was me. Yet I had no “stress” to report. It’s a cultural thing.
Perhaps. I think everyone has stress. The real difference is who gets to say “I’m stressed” and has that accommodated. My high school did not give one single hoot or quarter the year my mother was bedridden nor did they care about my friend’s father dying. Yet there was endless amounts of sympathy and accommodation from teachers and students alike over a student whose father had been arrested for tax evasion, and made sure to write extra notes in her college recommendations to keep that in mind when admissions offices looked at her performance. They did not do this for either me or my friend, and these were administrators and teachers well versed in “stress.”
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I wish people were as competitive in high-school academics as they are in athletics. Nobody questions the 20 hours per week of swimming practice that my kid and his team mates have when the varsity season is in full swing. Yet, if someone suggested as many additional hours of say, calculus homework, heads would be rolling and it would be called inhumane, robbing kids of childhood etc.
Having said that, I have had several undergrads cry in my office over the years. 100% of them were male Asian-born students. They are under so much pressure to perform and are in majors that their parents have chosen for them, regardless of the kids’ interests, that I am not sure how great they turn out professionally or personally. I remember one of them, after I had asked him what he liked, answered “I have never though about that.” Another girl is going through the motions for her engineering and CS dual degree; she’s smart and is doing well, but doesn’t like any of it. The only thing she really liked was to play an instrument (some traditional Chinese string instrument), she went to the conservatory and all, but her parents decided her future was more secure in engineering, so that’s what she is doing.
I think many essay pieces forget to give a fully human face to Asian immigrants and Asian-Americans. These people are often under a lot of pressure and many do adapt to it, but I can’t imagine it’s without psychological cost.
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When I was in high school many decades ago in Tennessee, my home town had exactly two high schools: one high school for all the white students in the entire county, and a second high school for all the black students. There was no choice of a “low-expectations” versus “high-achieving” school district to choose from.
Both high schools dealt with this by having a two-track system: easy classes (e.g., “Home Economics,” “Low English” [yes, the class was actually called that]) for students who weren’t planning to go to college, and more challenging classes (“High English,” “Higher Mathematics”) for students who would be moving on to college and beyond. The assignment to some of these classes was voluntary on the students’ part, and in other classes was determined by the students’ overall grades.
There were NO Asians, Hispanics, or any “ethnic” whites in my school, so nobody could claim discrimination within the single school because of this system. (The black high school was closed the year after I graduated, and then the entire county had one single high school, period.)
With the diversity of student populations all over America now, even in much of the South, a two-track system like that might not be politically feasible.
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My kids went through a very culturally diverse public school district which supported learning in 18 languages to accommodate children who grew up speaking those languages (Chinese, Mongolian, Russian, German, French, Vietnamese, etc.). The district was perhaps 30% native-born white, 5% Hispanic, almost no blacks, 10% European nationals with a parent working here, and the balance Asian. From that perspective, there’s nothing in this article that could not have been written 20 years ago.
What we saw in our neighbors is that Chinese and Japanese children’s time was very structured — school, music lessons, English lessons, homework, dinner, bed. That’s how they were raised. They did well in school and the parents pushed both them and the school district to make sure that happened. These parents were active advocates for the kids, which a lot of anglo parents aren’t. Having the parents actively involved in elementary and high school makes a difference.
My assumption is that a lot of that regimentation is still happening. The kids who group up in that system are used to it — it’s not stressful for them.
Some of the key challenges for immigrant kids and their families were more social than academic. Example: Traditional Indian families are used to choosing partners for their children. Western dating customs are alien, and we saw some real conflicts between westernized children and traditional parents.
If kids think they are stressed now, just wait. According to some reports, 40% of existing jobs will disappear due to automation over the next 20 years. Permanent jobs are giving way to contract work and workers can expect periods of unemployment between assignments. Real income is declining. The current generation of native-born college grads will not achieve the standard of living of their parents.
We’re in an increasingly difficult time in which kids either learn to deal with stress and keep up with their peers or lose out. Having a parent trying to shelter them from stress is probably the worse thing possible, because it does nothing to prepare them for the future.
Please remember the stupid story from earlier this year, about the coed blowing a $90,000 fund for her college expenses and then blaming her parents. I’m guessing she wasn’t an immigrant. She’s really ready for her future, isn’t she?
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/a-college-student-blows-inheritance-bert-show-205833329.html
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Seriously, folks, if this is “an increasingly difficult time”, then I’ve got to rest my case right here. Life has never been easier, gentler, more prosperous, and less demanding but in the midst of this incredible opulence, people so enjoy imagining themselves as cruelly victimized. It’s like a national sport called “Count your grievances.”
Love Americans but this one “Tragedy looms” tic is plenty annoying.
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I guess Vic is referring to the situation when every college-educated white man (and eventually also white woman) could reasonably expect a middle-class job…
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Hey, why not go directly to the situation where every human being can reasonably expect a life devoid of any suffering or hardship? And then we can all collectively mourn the cruel fate that does not allow for this kind of existence.
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“Please remember the stupid story from earlier this year, about the coed blowing a $90,000 fund for her college expenses and then blaming her parents.”
Now students in Louisiana can blame the state for their college expenses.
“In order to graduate from high school in Louisiana, students will soon be required to apply for federal financial aid for college.
The state’s Board of Elementary and Secondary Education approved the new graduation prerequisite earlier this month, and the new policy will go into effect beginning with the class of 2018.”
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015-12-22/louisiana-to-require-students-to-fill-out-fafsa
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Since federal law requires all states to provide free public education through high school, I don’t see how this Louisiana ruling can possibly be upheld if it’s challenged in court.
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In stark contrast to Louisiana’s added requirement for graduation, California is now giving diplomas away:
New California law:
“On January 1, California residents will have to accustom themselves to a number of new laws that will be implemented in the state. These are some the laws that will likely have the most profound effect:
SB 172: High school seniors will receive their diploma whether or not they pass or even take an exit exam; the law also applies retroactively to students who have graduated since 2004.”
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