The Summary of and Response to “the Trouble with Talent” by Kathy Seal

There is a phenomenon happening in most schools throughout the country. Asian students as young as seven years olds are labeled as gifted and enrolled in various accelerate programs to further develop their talents. Certainly, most of these students are deserving of the honorable recognition. However, many skeptics do question how many of them are viewed as exceptional students based upon the stereotype: they are genetically smarter than their non-Asian peers.

The two main ideas of “The Secret to Raising Smart Kids” are that fixed minded people are less likely to accept a challenge than growth minded people and that parents can do their part to help their child have a successful life by implanting a growth mind-set in their child’s brain. If more parents raised their children as growth minded individuals, this world would improve significantly.

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.

In some cases, the child may inherit some genes, which would enable him/her, to become a very good dancer, pianist, painter, etc., but if the

Additionally, Albert Einstein once said, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” There are different forms of intelligence that go beyond what our school system measures. Students are not a unit to be measured, and students cannot be assigned a numerical value to identify their intelligence. Students are diverse—they learn at different speeds, and they learn in different ways. Focusing solely on test scores is hurting our students and deviating away from building our society on success and excellence. Critics are slowly realizing the problems associated with standardized tests—they create anxiety, they are extremely biased, and they do not measure the ability to think deeply.

In “Thinking About Diversity”, Frank H. Wu details about his experiences as an Asian American. Wu says that, “some non-Asian students do, indeed, assume that I am gifted with mathematical, scientific, or computer-programming talents solely on account of my race” (Wu, 147), this concept shows the overview picture of Asians, but this does not apply to every Asians. The mathematic, science or computer programming is a universal subject that most industrialized places like Asia teach to students. Most Asian immigrants are familiar with those subjects because they already learn it back home and are able to do well on them, not because of a race. A race cannot provide a special intelligent to people, it’s just a different classify groups of people.

Julie Lythcott-Haims explains to us all what a perfect child is; straight A student, fabulous test scores, gets homework done without parents asking them to do it… She has the right idea, the right mindset of a parent, every parent wants their child to succeed in life. The way that parents are parenting their children is messing them up. They don’t have a chance to become themselves, they are too focused on whether they did good on that test that they were stressing about for a week, they are too worried about getting the best grade to be able to get accepted into the biggest name colleges around. The parents become too consumed with hovering over their children making sure that they are doing flawlessly in school, the parents are directing their every single move they make. The children then began to think that their parents love comes from the good grades. Then they start making this checklist; Good grades, what they want to be when they grow up, get accepted into good colleges, great SAT scores, the right GPA, the jock of the sports team.

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

Teachers and parents have dedicated their time to tell children that they are smart and talented every time they get a good grade. Praising children this type of way has had an impact on their lives. Dweck said “many students believe that intelligence is fixed, that each person has certain amount and that’s that”. Students with fixed mindset only care about how smart they look or how smart they appear. By having this fix mindset, they turn down the ability to learn new things. They believe that if you study hard, you are not smart enough, and that if you were smart things will come to you with no effort. This has made students lose their belief in oneself when they face complicated circumstance. Dweck says that the reason for kids to have a fixed mindset is “intelligence

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.

I do not believe Chua’s essay perpetuates a cultural stereotype; Chinese parents push their children to be smart, they feel this is the best way to show their children they care about them. Chua’s essay simply demonstrates the difference in ideals and expectations between both Chinese and Western parents. This not only shows a difference in Chinese and Western parenting but also in other cultures. My parents, who are Hispanic, would not celebrate or praise me if I brought home an A from school just because that is what was expected of me. Becoming smart was my only job; it was an easy job in their eyes. On the other hand, my daughter brought home an A and she was praised and rewarded for all the hard work she put in to make that happen. My

When self-interest is held to be the main motivation of parents, unanimous agreement on the issue of enhancing a child’s abilities is clearly an impossibility.

Jim Spiegel’s article explains that eastern parents emphasize on hard and practice as the way to succeed, but western parents usually believe that success is based on natural intelligence.

In my opinion, the American and Asian scholar systems have their own share of problems, but to say that one should be modeled after the other is insane. Both of these regions are so in depth with their culture, that it would be highly improbable that either of them would change. First, the article says that Asian culture succeeds with struggle, but who is to say that is a good thing? Second, in the conversations with the kids and the mothers, it seems as though there is parental pressure rather than a kid’s natural drive to do something. Third, what is the proper way to test someone’s intelligence?

There are many smart people in the world that do not know how smart they really are. The reason for this is they have not been given the tools in their environment to know their capabilitieswhat they are capable of. While genetics may place some limits on intelligence, there are “views that genius is not inborn, but that outward evidence that genius occurs via practice, persistence, and maybe a little luck ” (Phoenix 1). Studies have been conducted to help high achievers and gifted individuals to reach their full potential. There was a family of three children in the UK who were homeschooled. Their