Quote:
Originally Posted by choclosteve
I do not think we have discussed whether Asians are smarter because they were born that way or they work harder. I suspect the latter. Whichever, it is well documented that US born east Asians, Jews and women do better in school, on average, than the rest of us. My daughter and her Philipine/American husband struggle to contribute $300/ month to my grandsons' college fund, plus hit up the relatives for contributions. They have been teaching them Spanish from birth, they go weekly to story time at the public library, and the 3 year old is in a co-op pre-school, etc. I think they will do better in school than most
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It's almost entirely a cultural thing. Jews and East Asians emphasize education, usually, much more than other racial groups. Kind of similar to how poor students tend not to do as well as wealthy students--its parental/cultural influence.
Everybody has an innate potential that cannot really be changed, but only fostered. The key is for the parents of each child to encourage and assist their children in achieving academic success, and Asians appear smarter because they do this.
That said, we should temper our praise for Asian parents with a warning: many of the Asian parents I know (I grew up with many Asian friends, so I have a decent observational knowledge of this) are extremely controlling, and push their kids
too hard. There is a fine line between encouraging your children, and forcing them. I saw numerous friends of mine, most of them Asian, forced into majours or career paths they did not want to go into, simply because their parents thought them most lucrative. This is as wrong as leaving your kids to the wind.