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Why do Asian kids outperform Western kids in math?
YouTube ^ | Book published in 2008 | Malcolm Gladwell

Posted on 09/21/2024 7:48:21 AM PDT by grundle

Malcolm Gladwell in his book "The Outliers" states that the reason Asian kids consistently outperform western kids in international math tests is because of the cultural attitude these kids have towards solving a math problem, or any task that requires patience and effort for a long period of time.

In China and other Asian cultures, there is a logical pattern to learning math based on a confidence and expectation that if we apply enough effort the problem is solvable while in the West, kids believe their ability is innate and can't be changed or influenced.

Malcolm's theory is that the reason for this difference in attitude has to do with the historical agriculture practices in both cultures, where the rice growing Asian culture had a different lifestyle for thousands of years that required consistent hard work which translates in the today's attitude of their kids when trying to solve a math problem.

(Excerpt) Read more at youtube.com ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: asian; education; math
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To: dfwgator

Your “because” is an unproven assumption.


41 posted on 09/21/2024 8:31:47 AM PDT by HIDEK6 (God bless Donald Trump)
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To: grundle

Exactly.

That’s why everything was invented in Asia.

Oh, wait….


42 posted on 09/21/2024 8:31:47 AM PDT by ifinnegan (Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
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To: grundle

because they study and don’t do drugs/alcohol


43 posted on 09/21/2024 8:32:44 AM PDT by rod5591
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To: libh8er

“But I’ll tell you what they don’t want. They don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don’t want well-informed, well-educated people capable of critical thinking. They’re not interested in that. That doesn’t help them. That’s against their interests. They don’t want people who are smart enough to sit around the kitchen table and figure out how badly they’re getting ——— by a system that threw them overboard 30 years ago.

You know what they want? Obedient workers,­ people who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork but just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly s____ier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, reduced benefits, the end of overtime and the vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it.

And, now, they’re coming for your Social Security. They want your retirement money. They want it back, so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street. And you know something? They’ll get it. They’ll get it all, sooner or later, because they own this place. It’s a big club, and you ain’t in it. You and I are not in the big club.”

-George Carlin


44 posted on 09/21/2024 8:32:50 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: grundle

Um... more is expected of them and they work harder? And not just in math.


45 posted on 09/21/2024 8:32:56 AM PDT by Rummyfan ( In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man.)
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To: grundle

Because they’re smarter and taught better.


46 posted on 09/21/2024 8:34:48 AM PDT by 9YearLurker
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To: Varsity Flight

...guess will have to remember Einstein, Telsa, Rembrandt, Mozart, Hedy Lamar all came from Asia single mommy households..


47 posted on 09/21/2024 8:35:43 AM PDT by Varsity Flight ( "War by 🙏 the prophesies set before you." I Timothy 1:18. Nazarite warriors. 10.5.6.5 These Days)
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To: grundle

Because they are taught it.


48 posted on 09/21/2024 8:36:25 AM PDT by SaxxonWoods (.)
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To: sopo

Physically, Asians tend to mature most slowly (then whites, then....).


49 posted on 09/21/2024 8:36:30 AM PDT by 9YearLurker
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To: HIDEK6

Bingo!
Give that post for the win!
Math requires effort! No effort and little math knowledge is acquired.


50 posted on 09/21/2024 8:36:46 AM PDT by Reily (N)
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To: libh8er

“Western” is increasingly non white. Import low iq morons, become low iq morons.

Plenty of the middle class white kids in my neighborhood, at my kids’ school, are not bright, not motivated, not good at sports, whiny, etc etc. I’m not sure blaming all on immigration is the way to go here...


51 posted on 09/21/2024 8:36:50 AM PDT by Languager
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To: ruiner
… but for some reason with math we just throw up our hands and say “they’re just not a math person”.

When a person finds it too difficult for him to learn to read music, he tells you that he is proud that he can’t read music.

The same thing happens when he fails to learn how to do arithmetic.

52 posted on 09/21/2024 8:36:59 AM PDT by HIDEK6 (God bless Donald Trump)
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To: struggle
learn multiplication tables from memory

Within living memory, that was the norm in these United States.

53 posted on 09/21/2024 8:37:07 AM PDT by NorthMountain (... the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
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To: goodnesswins

this.


54 posted on 09/21/2024 8:37:15 AM PDT by xoxox
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To: grundle

Which western kids to whom do you refer.?


55 posted on 09/21/2024 8:38:27 AM PDT by Recompennation (Don’t blame me my vote didn’t count)
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To: Languager

Plenty of the middle class white kids in my neighborhood, at my kids’ school, are not bright, not motivated, not good at sports, whiny, etc etc. I’m not sure blaming all on immigration is the way to go here...


It’s a symptom of the larger disease, frankly this country got too “Fat, Dumb and Happy.”


56 posted on 09/21/2024 8:39:35 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: libh8er

> It said school standards are being lowered to pass migrant children. <

As I noted earlier, I was an urban high school teacher. This lowering of standards has been going on long before Covid or the migrant crisis.

Academic achievement is no longer a priority to the new breed of central administrators. PR is everything. And part of that is graduation rates. Gotta get high numbers!

The easiest way to do this is to drastically lower the standards. In the school district where I worked, 50% became the lowest score we teachers could give on a test. So if a student put his name on a test and then did nothing more, he “earned” 50 points.

Crazy.


57 posted on 09/21/2024 8:40:07 AM PDT by Leaning Right (The steal is real.)
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Yet nearly all math and physics progress originated in the West which may be related to a higher degree of creative and spatial thinking, or cultural opportunity.

But it’s no secret Asians excel in academics which could be related to the cultural influences mentioned upthread.


58 posted on 09/21/2024 8:40:54 AM PDT by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist! )
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To: NorthMountain

The purpose of education is to develop a good “BS Meter”.

And if you can’t do basic multiplication in your head, it’s very easy for someone to BS you with figures.


59 posted on 09/21/2024 8:41:01 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: Gene Eric

Yet nearly all math and physics progress originated in the West which may be related to a higher degree of creative and spatial thinking, or cultural opportunity.


But....but......the Muslims invented Algebra....don’cha know!


60 posted on 09/21/2024 8:41:43 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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