Asians and the Causes for Genius

In 1998, Eric Liu wrote a book about his struggle with acculturation titled “The Accidental Asian”. A chapter within the book called “Notes of a Native Speaker” depicts an essay written by Liu which fully describes his struggles with race and how he overcame them. Eric Liu is an American born Taiwanese Asian. His parents immigrated to the United States before he was born and in so, gave him a mixed cultural background. He started becoming a writer after attending Yale University and graduating from Harvard Law School. In his “Notes of a Native Speaker” author Eric Liu argues that as he was “becoming white” he was achieving, learning the ways of the upper

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

One complaint I have heard from numerous teachers in my school is that they must teach a simplified version of the subject matter to create a passable course for the largest number of students. Based on what I have read in the article, Asian teachers present information that is slightly too difficult so that their students have something to work for. This may seem like an insignificant detail, but I believe it highlights a vast cultural difference. Sometimes in the US we focus so much on wanting everyone to succeed that we make it too simple for them to do so. Everyone should have the opportunity to succeed, but that does not mean spoon-feeding people throughout their

Not all asians are smart, so when people say they all are. The asians that may not feel so smart will feel like they have to be “up to standards” or they feel like they have to be someone that they are not because people expect them to be.

Part two of Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell address the Impact of culture on one's actions. Gladwell uses these chapters to depict different circumstances and the cultures legacy or norms have affects their lives and futures. While in part one Gladwell looked at multiplet individuals, chapter two looked more at groups. According to Gladwell what are the reasons asian excel mathematics? Discuss the cultural and educational differences that he points to as explanation.

Gladwell proves how focusing can make a difference when it comes to math test. In "Rice Paddies and Math Tests" Gladwell proves how people of Asian descent can focus more because it's in their culture. Every 4 years a test is given to elementary and middle school students worldwide called the TIMSS. The TIMSS test the students over math and science, but at the beginning the student has to fill out a questionnaire that is 120 questions long. It turns out majority of students leave about 15 to 20 questions blank. Gladwell explains, “In other words, countries whose students are willing to concentrate and sit still long enough and focus on answering every single question in an endless questionnaire are the same countries whose students do the best job of solving math problems” (Gladwell 247-248). If teens could also apply the same focus on everything, which Asians can on math, then they could make further into their education. Then after being educated and all that good stuff can use their amazing focus to get a job that they could get promoted in. After getting that job and using the focus they can get promoted to a position of authority and become more successful.

American's success is exaggerated to a great extent, and does not fit the "model minority" most

The model minority is a member of a minority group either based on ethnicity, race, or religion whose members are commonly perceived to achieve a higher level of success than the average population. The success that an individual reaches is typically measured by income, education, low crime rates and high family stability achieved throughout their lives. The stereotype of the model minority is commonly associated with Asian Americans as they are assumed to achieve highly in academics which will thus propel them up the economic ladder. The stereotype of a smart high achieving Asian American student is fueled by other stereotypes such as Asians being good at math and that they all go to college. The intelligence stereotypes created by society are the reason why some individuals feel pressured to succeed and feel as if failure is not as option. If its not the student who feels the pressure, than it is the parent that pushes to child to do well. So called helicopter parents, that push their children into professions or schools that the child may not want to attend, but have no choice as the school or profession will bring upon great fortune and pride to the family. The parents push upon their own ambitions and dreams onto the child and are looking out for the child 's future even if it is not necessarily the child 's desire. However, along with the idea of a child succeeding both academically and financially come the notion that the child may only excel in school. The child

The American education system needs to change techniques in order to successfully prepare students for success in today’s world. American students are reportedly averaging some of the lowest test scores on the PISA test. This is mentioned in Amanda Ripley’s book the Smartest Kids in the World when it’s stated “Failure in American schools was demoralizing…American kids could not handle routine failure” (pg.72 par.4). This statement is a clear sign that the techniques used in the American education system to promote academic success in students need amending. There is definitely a change that needs to happen within the American educational system this is the only way to ensure that American students will be equipped with the tools they require

Look around you and notice that everyone has something hidden. That something cannot be seen with the eye like a physical object, but more of something buried down deep in the roots. History books mention the founding of the United States of America and how everything started in this country. But there has always been a big part excluded out of the books. Most of them talk about the Americans, but what about the Asian Americans who have contributed to this country? They had to go through harsh discrimination and unfair laws and rules. Asian Americans have a history that has been untold. Everything has been buried because their voices cannot be heard. Look around you again and move around. Objects may look different or you may even see other

Among the students who continue to struggle are many minority students who show a deficit in math and science readiness. This deficit is apparent in nearly every state in the United States. Blank, Manise, Brathwaite & Langesen (1999), indicate that an examination of performance in all states reveals a point difference of 30 to 50 percentage points between white students and the minority students’ scores on the 8th grade NAEP exam.

The general argument made by Alix Spiegel in his work, Struggle for Smarts? How Eastern and Western Cultures Tackle Learning, is that American kids do not try hard enough to get through a problem, while other cultures such as Eastern places take however long they need. Alix went on a trip to Japan to research teaching methods. He noticed while sitting in a classroom of a fourth-grade math class a student was struggling with something, after a while the teacher told him to write it on the board. Normally, in America, teachers will call the smarter students up to do the example on the board.

The heading “Rice Paddies and Math Tests” is the main focus of chapter. Gladwell begins the chapter by illustrating the multiple steps it takes to grow rice paddies, emphasizing the point that rice has been cultivated in China for thousands of years. Next, the Chinese number system is brought up due to its “logical counting system”. The regularity in the system provides advantages for Asian children, because they are able to learn faster than American children, specifically in subjects such as mathematics. The author relates the point about having advantages back to the roots in a group’s culture. “In the case of the Koreans, one kind of deeply rooted legacy stood in the way of the very modern task of flying an airplane. Here was have another kind of legacy, one that turns out to be perfectly suited for twenty-first-century tasks. Cultural legacies matter, and once we’ve seen the surprising effects of such things such as power distance and numbers” (231-232). The cultural legacy of rice farmers has taught farmers to have patience, determination, perseverance, continuous practice, understanding what it means to do meaningful work and how to succeed. “The harder you work a rice field, the more it yields. Second, it’s complex work... He or she effectively funs a small business, juggling a family workforce, hedging uncertainty through seed selection, building and managing a sophisticated irrigation system and coordinating he complicated process of harvesting the first crop while

In this paper, it will be looking at the culture and education practices of Finland, Canada, and China. Education varies from country to country as well as does one's culture, lifestyle of the people who live there. In doing so will review their culture and the role of their education policies that are used to motivate schools and teachers to improve student learning along with how their culture plays into learning. Furthermore, children should be taught with respect to their culture. However, we can also learn from one another. In addition, we have similar and different educational practices from one another. Such as when it comes to the Finnish, Canadians, to the Chinese as, we all learn in different environments because of our

Current nationwide examination outcomes offer continuing paperwork of the should enhance the concentrate on enhancing student accomplishment in mathematics. The National Evaluation of Educational Development (NAEP) just recently launched the 2005 mathematics ratings which mirrored student accomplishment in the locations of dimension, geometry, information analysis, likelihood and algebra. Country wide, just 30 % of 8th graders were considered competent. Although mirroring a boost from previous evaluations, just 69 % of the 8th graders country wide showed a standard abilities level on the NAEP evaluation (Olson, 2005).