Alix Spiegel Struggle For Smarts Summary

To begin, genius comes about through passion, creativity, and natural talent and cannot be “born”. First, intellect is the obvious foundation for any genius, however, it involves more than natural intelligence. To illustrate, an individual may have great talent in a certain subject but lack of practice, imagination and passion will prevent him from being a genius. On the other hand, one may not have an astounding natural ability nevertheless he practices, has a passion for this subject and an open imagination; this individual may turn out to be a genius. Thus, intellect is an aspect of a genius not the only component.

For many researchers, the notion of Asian students are hereditary more intelligent than other race groups as believes by Arthur Jensen, an educational psychologist, is not a valid explanation for why Asian students perform better than their counterparts. While it is evident

After reading Seal’s article which stated that Americans often thought kids are born smart while Asians more often believed that studying makes a person smarter, I was reminded my own personal beliefs on intelligence and I realized that I have thought people could get smart by exerting effort since I was in the last year of elementary school in Vietnam. Therefore, I empathized with Seal’s attitude that success and achievement are a result of working hard. I could remember that I got this attitude when I was in an important final exam which decided where my middle school was in the next year that depended on my score. In this exam, the math test was an extremely difficult test for every student because it had a strange math problem which my classmates and I had never studied before. At first, I had spent for 2 hour to solve this problem, but I didn’t succeed. So, I wanted to give up. However, I was worry about my score and thought about my mom, who hoped that I could get the high score enough to enter a famous middle school. Since I didn’t want to disappoint my mom’s wish, I tried to solve this math problem again and again and again. Eventually, I was successful to solve

In the story “The Trouble with Talent: Are We Born Smart or Do We Get Smart?” by Kathy Seal explains the difference between Asian children and American children’s work ethic. Kathy explains the school systems in china work differently due to the fact that America has the idea that children are born with a set I.Q. while Asians believe that your intelligence is determined by hard work. The author of this story’s purpose is to persuade the reader by proving her thesis that intelligence is gained through hard work. She does this by using a multitude of valid evidence, having a strong thesis, and connecting with the reader though reader oriented language. The pattern of this essay is clearly a compare and contrast because the author looks at the difference between how Asian and American children are taught. She makes a strong point using the compare and contrast method by providing the reader with valid information on the American and Asian sides to point out that being smart happens though hard work and determination. Seal organizes this compare and contrast by making a point to point analysis of Asian and American culture.

There are some common ways in which different cultures express their values. Cultures value different things. Some ignorant people think that this also means all cultures do not have similarities to teach or express values. In “Struggle For Smarts? How Eastern And Western Cultures Tackle Learning” it conveys how a professor recorded how American families talked about intelligence being something people are born with. In contrast, in Eastern families they talked about how hard work brought intelligence (Spiegel). This passage shows extremely different values, but when examined, researchers can see they both were expressed through speech. This discovery is not surprising

The Asian group has strong standards regarding academic success. The United States Census Bureau reported that the percentage of Asian Americans to possess a bachelor’s degree or higher increased by 54% which shows a significant increase within the past 20 years (United States Census Bureau, 2016). Throughout much of Asia, children are taught at an early age to believe that education is the only path to success. While they are a distinct minority, their indicators of success in terms of education and future income occur because of the unique style of parenting which is based on the belief of the philosopher Confucius. Within their culture, they are taught to work on self-perfection which will help them achieve self-improvement in qualities such as diligence, determination, and concentration (Seal, 2010). Parents, family members, and their community assume the responsibility for teaching and disciplining children. Furthermore, they instill the belief that a child’s achievement or lack thereof is a direct reflection on the efforts of the entire family and community (Chen & Uttal, 1988). These types of demands coupled with academic

Understanding and using intelligence is in all of us. The intelligence determines a person who uses it for their purposes that results that there are different categories of work that people work in. The different categories are different skill-sets consider the type of person in a group of people that coexists with the other people. This results that a person is to themselves based on what they can or cannot act according to their intellect. All people are not a welder or a doctor, nevertheless at least one person is one of them with the skills they gain from the intelligence or experience that they have. Understanding intelligence difference and its subjectivity are one view of understanding Mike Rose article "Blue-Collar Brilliance"

One of the first things a child is taught while growing up is the well-known cliché, practice makes perfect. This phrase has been the basis for trial and error situations time and time again, where if it doesn’t work the first time then keep trying. In Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell leaves the audience with a memorable observation, the 10,000 hour rule. The basis of the 10,000 hour rule is that an area of interest requires 10,000 hours of practice in order to become an expert. Although this may be true in some situations, how can someone practice something they are unable to do? Natural talent and ability are crucial characteristics in order to become an expert in any area. This phenomena highly lends itself to the observations made about intelligence and genetics. The main misunderstanding when considering whether this argument is fundamentally nature or nurture is the difference between intelligence and education. Many consider education to be exactly equal to intelligence, which is the basis for the believing that working hard will essentially result in intelligence. Intelligence is considered as “a very general mental capability that, among other things, involved the ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, learn quickly, and learn from experience” (Colangelo19-39.) Qualities that make up the realm of intelligence are things that people are simply born with and cannot easily be taught and trained. One may be able to work twice as hard as the next person and equalize their achievements, but the essential difference at work is the way the mind process information and the difference between intelligence and education. Although some consider intelligence to be an environmentally based attribute, they fail to understand the true meaning of

Cultural differences pose several barriers for students and may impair their opportunity to learn. These barriers are created by differences in language expression, communication style, preferred learning style, gender-role customs and behaviors, and limited parental involvement due to these cultural or socioeconomic barriers

This article explains and discusses how good Asian students do in high academic levels. At the same time, refutes four different myths about Asian American academic achievements. The article has a brief introduction including some background information before focusing, explaining and discusses the four myths: Asian American has superior academic achievement; Asian-American students are born smart; Asian-American students are trouble-free kids, and Asian-American students are good at

Some might say that intelligence is everything, that one has to be smart to make it in life, book smart, street smart, either of these will lead to success. IQ is all the rage, it's a competition to see who has the highest IQ as if it can change. The New York Times article entitled “Can You Get Smarter?” written by Richard A. Friedman clearly leads readers to believe that they can indeed expand their initial intelligence, or at least that is what the article appears to be leading readers towards. However I don’t think that one can, so to speak, become smarter. I believe that one can use his brain to unlock what is already there through practice, belief, and exercise.

He writes, “people who are smart don’t struggle, they just naturally get it, that’s our folk theory. Whereas in Asian cultures they tend to see struggle more as an opportunity.” In this passage, Alix Spiegel is suggesting that it is the culture that teaches the students how important education is and where it can and cannot get you in life. The smartness of the student does not have a lot to do with how well they do in school. In conclusion, Alix Spiegel’s belief is that cultural differences is what separates students and why some countries are categorized as being smarter or not as smart as other countries.

There is a relationship between intelligence and culture because intelligence is culturally shaped and defined and some cultures support and identify it as very vital in the context of social and ecological aspects. In the early years, there was a bias towards intelligence tests because they used English language and culture. The formation of Wesler Adult Intelligence Scale, Fourth Addition (WAIS,IV) in 2008 by David Wesler was meant to minimise the bias. According to Westen, Burton and Kowalski (2006), intelligence assists human beings to take control of their lives and it varies cross culturally because the power dynamics differ in each society and this leads to differences in behaviour and line of thinking. These authors describe intelligence as multifaceted, functional and can be defined by culture because it is universal and studying intelligence using different culture as a sample that can be used to question Western ideas about intelligence with some emphasis on the assessment of skills and abilities using culturally appropriate methods (Benson, 2003)

Each country has its own kind of education, and education always plays an important role in affecting students’ life and study on many aspects. Having received ten years of education in China and two years of education in the U.S. I would like to compare and contrast a few significant aspects of these two different kinds of educations. Knowing that no two education systems are the same, the differences between American education and Chinese education allow countries to take the essence and discard the dross through learning from each other so as to improve their own current education systems.

     For years, people have always felt that the Japanese school system was superior or more effective than that of the United States. Although some feel this way, others feel that the Japanese system is too strict and not flexible enough for those who may need extra help along the way. Through researching two different case studies, and also reading other materials, I have found many similarities along with many differences between the two, including teaching methods, overall emphases, and student involvement. Both countries have developed very effective and intricate systems of teaching, which compliment, and clash against one another. The Japanese system is not in all ways