I was attracted to the widely commented article in Brookings Institution Blog, “Asian-American success and the pitfalls of generalization”, more so because the article, while removing the generalizations, made some fact-based judgments which require further scrutiny.
First of all Asian-American success story cannot in any way ignore the fact that under the sweeping generalization there exists equally diverse and unequal denouement within the same community. The Asian community in America happens to be one of the most diverse group of people ranging from people who migrated from Japan in the 1940s to Vietnamese in the 1960s to the Chinese who have migrated in much larger numbers in the 80s and 90s; the Koreans, Indians, Taiwanese, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis or the Cambodians have been migrating quite evenly throughout the last century.
Could anyone possibly call this community as one? Well, no, as the diversity could be so high that there is no way one could club the destinies of the people with a simple few yardsticks. But the assignments continued and as data says, this community as a whole may have done better than many other communities, including the original Whites, as the report says.
I completely agree with two very vital conjectures in the article, one that is somewhat proved by data that the Asian-American community lives generally near good schools than the other communities. This is not only true for the rich but also for the relatively poor, which means even poorer communities live near good schools in the case of Asian-Americans.
The second is that there is a wide spread in the data among the Asian-Americans as to how each individual nation-group fared in the same school and there we have a very large diversity given that in the same school the Cambodians or Filipinos could be faring quite differently from the Koreans or the Taiwanese.
If the average Asian-American is doing better, it is a no-brainer that the percentage of high achievers have been growing and it is important to know how speedily these communities have been growing against the other communities, either through immigration or even otherwise.
But let me put the statistics aside. The real enquiry should be to understand the nuances of high achievement orientation among the Asian- Americans and could we see a common thread.
I would first of take the cue from the article itself where it says that the original people who immigrated from the Asia had to be willing to work harder and had higher chances of success like any other émigré, but it is most likely that the Asian mobility took a trajectory that was better than the other communities by virtue of their skills in a number of areas, like Algebra (as given in the article), or General Science or Technology, which made allowance for their faster mobility than the others.
The question therefore should be to see why these skills became more prominently sought after by the Asian-Americans and why they continued to excel in. Perhaps the answer lies deeper than what we think and here I would not hesitate to take refuge in the cultural make up of these communities.
In the book, “Outliers”, in the Chapter Eight, “Rice Paddies and Math tests”, Malcolm Gladwell explains why the rice producers from Vietnam, Japan or India fare far better in Math than any other community. He has reasoned why these communities through their very hard work developed the skills of perseverance and tenacity, which bode well for the faculties needed in Math.
I can only add that the desire to excel in Math and Science in these communities is almost natural and it is only very recently that these communities are looking beyond Math, Science or engineering as possible career choices; some years back there seemed to be no other options worth even considering.
That the link to mobility is embedded in these subjects needed no searching and exploring, the answer lay vividly in the success of other family members or other members of the society. Those who succeeded in entrepreneurial ventures never for once allowed themselves to bask in the glory of their entrepreneurial skills alone and wanted their siblings and children to do better in these subjects regardless.
Perhaps this is where the linkage to good schools and living near good schools, the important consideration for most Asian-Americans came from. If one interviews the parents, they would perhaps echo the same sentiments, adding that their choice of good school is more defined by their prowess to impart better education in Science and Math.
But I would like to point to a deeper reason why the performance could be better among this community. It is simply that the parents take a far more active role to see how their children cope up with challenges in Math and Science. In the formative years, it is natural for the young to struggle with these lessons and the effort that parents take in seeing that their children get the necessary support is very important.
I have found the responses varying between being completely aloof of what the child is doing at school to being completely engaged among the parents; the latter types are most common among the Asians. When they engage with the teachers, it is the Math or the Science teacher with whom they interact more. Same is true for their engagement with their child at home. It is also very normal to see the Asian parent asking more questions about their child’s progress in Math and Science than the others.
It is not right to stereotype these interactions as same for the entire community and it could well be that some could be at odds with this data. But surely this community is more likely to see that their children are given tasks at home and they would be disheartened if they are not.
Most of the Asians are surprised that the biggest complaint among the non-Asian parents is that home-assignments are given to their children. If the Asians do not see their child struggling with a Math problem, it would be construed that the school is not challenging the child enough.
However, it would be worthwhile to note that success does not only come from these skills that we talked off at length. It also comes from the ability to collaborate, network with others and assimilate inter-disciplinary areas that are so important to the overall development of the child. These are also the areas where Asians do not fare that well when compared to the other communities.
It remains to be seen whether further data points could be captured to finally take the hypotheses to the logical conclusion.
Asian-American Success: Good schooling and performance in schools may not be the only reason
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