Posted on 06/03/2009 5:17:00 PM PDT by reaganaut1
“All they do is study, study, study and try to prepare themselves for working and contributing....”
If I were a tin foil type....I might tighten my Reynolds Resistence Special Faraday head wrap a notch or two...and observe that its QUITE possible that some are threatened by a populace “too well educated” ....and homogenous...at some point in all their reading they’re liable to stumble upon a copy of the Constitution and Bill of Rights....
“Asians are “too dull - they study, study, study.”
Then they will probably also seem dull when our job is to be serving them coffee and tea....
Thanks,,I see parents everyday letting their kids off the hook, making excuses for the kid’s not embracing the idea that life is very long and what you do as an 18 year old will live with you.And it is hard to deny yourself “fun”.
I guess parents want “happy kids” and it is hard to watch them struggle. My parents had no difficulty with that,,they didn’t bat an eye at my studying all Christmas holiday, all summer, seven days a week. They thought it was grand.
WHen my daughter went to college, we discussed the sexual revolution and I told her one thing,,”you only have one reputation, one”
Twenty years later she told me it was the most powerful message she ever got.
Yes, I do. Give them 5 to 7 years, they will take over the NFL.
I don't consider giving up an instrument, or an avocation like fishing (especially since it provides us with food at little expense, LOL)...to be limiting one's possibilities. Our son is a bit of an overachiever, (he's 21 and about to earn his Master's) so I do think it's "healthy" when he takes time off to enjoy things other than studying (he's been in college classes since he was 16.) Different strokes for different folks.
Mark Steyn
Rush Limbaugh
Sean Hannity
Bill Gates
Steve Jobs
Michael Dell
Just saying.
Yes, but I know that several of those people are very well-read. Education does not have to occur in a school or college.
This happened to the Jews in the fifties and sixties. They were thought of as dull grinds.
The thing is that even if they do bail out their children or lower the bar, the kids will be more miserable than ever.
They're smart enough to know when they're being patronized. They know when everyone believes they can't cut it.
There is no greater reward than success if there is a real goal.
Not really. Most universities lose money on their intercollegiate athletics programs.
You took the convenient step of posting the shortest list of several. Then there is the list of those who have gone on to lead productive lives WITH the benefit of a college degree. That would be a very long list.
Perhaps as long would be the list of people who DID NOT go on to lead productive lives because they did not have the benefit of a college degree.
The rule seems to be: If you wish to make 5 or 10 million dollars per year or more, perhaps you needen't bother with college. But if you might be satisfied with somewhat less, better to be safe and get the best education you can.
During my years of studying, I played piano, had friends, went out, drank to excess at times, partied. But it was not alot, was infrequent and never interfered with the studying.
Your child is getting amessage from you that it is “unhealthy” to buckle down and give up fishing as much. He is hearing you say “he needs a break”.
There is no break in life,,he is way young to “need a break”. Kids who take a break see themselves as weak or fragile. He is 21 and has done well,,I don’t believe in the whole “overachiever” thing,,it implies he did better than he should have.
LIfe is long,,to start “needing breaks” at 21 is not a good idea in my mind,,
I never said his activities interfered with study, his grade point is high. The article said that all the Asian kids did was study. What I’m really saying is you can do both, enjoy life and get an education, one is not exclusive of the other.
And as far as a life philosophy, I do think everyone needs breaks in order to maintain balance in their lives. I work full time, his father works full time, and he works and goes to school. Taking time from our busy schedule to do enjoyable things is not “goofing off” IMHO, it’s just part of living a full life.
Some people play golf, some fish, some shop, some Freep...but we all need breaks from the “routine” of work or study, relaxation so to speak. It’s good for the brain and the body.
Is he taking time out of school to get a break?
I thought that is what you were saying and that the competition from the Asian students was something he had decided he couldn’t do.
And I don’t know that calling what the Asian kids do as “unhealthy” is anything more than defending your son’s posture in not being able to compete with them.
If he doesn’t want that, fine, but he needs to know that he has one time in his life to get himself ready to go out and make his future. And that if he doesn’t mind seeing the Asians get ahead of him for life, that is fine.
But frankly, I would suggest he emulate them,,fish less, study harder, compete with them. Otherwise get used to saying “yes sir” to a bunch of Asians. Who will be off on their long vacations, spending their hard won money at great fishing places, having much security and leisure and really cool cars.
Kids often don’t see that ahead.
No he's never taken time off school. In fact he's had perfect attendance through his college years (since he's been 16.) Never missed a class, that's more than I could say for me during college, LOL.
He's taken 15-18 hours per term every term, except now in grad school full time is 9 hours per term, but he works a job in his field, and is a GA (that gets him tuition free) in addition to his classes.
The Asian kids he's had dealings with impose a standard on themselves and aim for a 4.0. (many of them are also here being sponsored by their countries, so they are not working or putting themselves through college.) But if the question were to be asked if a 4.0 is as important to him as it is to the Asian kids, I'd imagine the answer would be no. His feeling is that job experience, responsibility as a GA, and graduating with honors (but not a 4.0) will serve him as well as a 4.0 in his academic studies.
If the 4.0 is what is ultimately important, then yes, he will have missed out but academic achievement does not always translate into success in the workplace. Time will tell!
Speaking from personal experience, the people in college who are willing to sacrifice and give their absolute best tend to do better after college than those who waste themselves on partying and hitting on girls.
Most of my friends from college who partied, took “breaks” and had soft liberal arts majors are ALL struggling right now. Unemployed, living with parents, working as waiters....
Meanwhile the ones who worked their butts off and studied Engineering or Hard Sciences are now mostly well-off.
At the end of the day, the Asian Americans seem to ON AVERAGE have a work-ethic that is a cut above most non-Asian Americans. Once again, I’m speaking from the perspective of an AA. It seems like such a waste to prevent people to better themselves.
I can agree to that. I make a good living and when they threw me out of college, I had to fake cancer to get back in. I am going to hell for that one.....
My hubby made 4.0 all thru,,his person, who he is, has made him very very successful. He is almost 70 and is an expert skier, started late, and expert diver, started at 40, a computer whiz not related to his job and a person who is admired by everyone. He quit working to take care of me for the last year.
He worked his butt off all the way thru school and it paved the way for him, made him the worker he is. I think he has the best work ethic of anyone I have known. The habits of eight years, the ability to put off pleasure, the sheer desire to be better than anyone else developed during his long school years.
A typical liberal arts education, which consists of little more than PC dogma, undermines critical thinking skills, diminishes one's ability to think, and therefore to earn a living, and above all, diminishes one's ability to lead a good life.
Those who graduate and go on to earn a good living do so in spite of their formalized schooling. Remember that students chosen by colleges generally have a better aptitude for learning. As a dean of a law school once told me, because Harvard accepts the most intelligent people in the country, they don't have to work hard for their graduates to be "successful." That's why their screening process is so rigorous.
The only area within higher ed that provides value is in the hard sciences, which represents a small percentage of majors. Until now, the hard sciences have been able to escape from dogmatic thinking, but that's changing. Postmodernism undertands the principles that undergird the scientific method, and postmodernism rejects them.
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