Quote:
Originally Posted by BullMoose
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.
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Yes, I pretty much agree. I usually have a knee jerk negative reaction to control freaks. My observations have lead me to conclude that the most important thing is parental involvement in their children's education, and if you are, you will be talking to the teachers and looking for other opportunities to add towards their education. Ahh, but then we get those kids with fucked up parents, etc., and I think it pays to to have special programs to help them. Money spent on education, is money well spent. As a certified geezer, I have seen, first the superior California education system become second rate due to budget cuts, and now the superior Eugene, Oregon education system deteriorate due to republican inspired budget cuts. I want a better educated and more productive populace capable of paying for my medicare and social security. You don't get much for nothing- education should be #1 priority- it is our future. Take some more taxes out of my social security for education and stop spending it on searches for WMD's in Iraq and tax cuts for the rich