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For Asians, School Tests Are Vital Steppingstones
NY Times ^ | 10/26/2012 | KYLE SPENCER

Posted on 10/27/2012 9:24:10 AM PDT by Kid Shelleen

Ting Shi said his first two years in the United States were wretched. He slept in a bunk bed in the same room with his grandparents and a cousin in Chinatown, while his parents lived on East 89th Street, near a laundromat where they endured 12-hour shifts. He saw them only on Sundays.

--snip-- Her father and four brothers died of starvation during Cambodia’s civil war. And once here, she said, she watched her mother struggle in a garment factory.

“This is the easy part,” Ms. Cheng said.

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


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Testing
KEYWORDS:

1 posted on 10/27/2012 9:24:14 AM PDT by Kid Shelleen
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To: Kid Shelleen
They cited their parents’ observance of ancient belief systems like Confucianism, a set of moral principles that emphasizes scholarship and reverence for elders, as well as their rejection of child-rearing philosophies more common in the United States that emphasize confidence and general well-being.

What quant and antiquated notions! Silly Asians! In America now, we are all about having the right skin color, and building self-esteem! You can be as dumb and lazy as a post, but at least you feel good!

2 posted on 10/27/2012 9:41:19 AM PDT by PGR88
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There's one thing missing from the report.

Unless you have a university degree, the chances of Asians "making it" in Asia are probably 1-2 percent.

For westerners (not the west)making it in the west, I bet it's nearer 20 percent.

3 posted on 10/27/2012 9:51:15 AM PDT by Jakarta ex-pat
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To: Jakarta ex-pat

My Wife is from Cambodia & been here 22 years.

She saw her Dad shot to death, say her Mom starve to death in a camp. She was on the run in the Jungle for 4 months. In a death capm, she was given one tablespoon of rice for a week at a time.

Now, she is successful, works at a medical device company, bought her own house, is very industrious and is making me Walleye lunch right now.

I cherrish my Wife so much & glad she survived the Holocaust in Cambodia.


4 posted on 10/27/2012 10:05:52 AM PDT by LiveFreeOrDie2001 (Best Cook on Free Republic! ;-))
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To: LiveFreeOrDie2001
I hope you didn't think I was degrading Asians.

Moreover, congratualtions to your wife for being so strong.

If the killing fields was anywhere close to the horrors of what she overcame, she has my greatest respect.

Keep smiling,

Philip

5 posted on 10/27/2012 10:11:56 AM PDT by Jakarta ex-pat
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To: Kid Shelleen

I raised my kids in a rural Oklahoma community with supposedly “poor” schools. Both worked hard, suffered through corporal punishment, loved their family and God. BUT, they both earned their way into elite universities. The ONLY way they got a look -vs- the children of the Kennedys/Clintons/Bidens/Gates/Pelosis/Gores etc, is that they made awesome scores on the SAT tests and took the seats otherwise reserved for the children of some fat-cat liberals.

If we do away with testing as a criteria, my kids, and the kids of these Asian immigrants with whom I have a lot in common, will never have a chance.

Oldplayer


6 posted on 10/27/2012 10:26:18 AM PDT by oldplayer
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To: LiveFreeOrDie2001
LiveFreeOrDie2001 said: "... glad she survived the Holocaust in Cambodia."

A very good friend of mine crossed the border between communist China and Hong Kong when he was in his early teens. The authorities arbitrarily stopped the rest of his family from crossing but he was permitted to go alone.

In his first years in the U.S. he lived for a time in a chicken coop. He rode a bicycle about thirty miles a day to work and attend school.

I admire people who have faced such difficulties and overcome them to thrive in what is the greatest nation on earth. Our indigenous minorities should be shamed of themselves.

7 posted on 10/27/2012 10:27:14 AM PDT by William Tell
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To: Kid Shelleen
No one will be surprised if Asian students, who make up 14 percent of the city’s public school students, once again win most of the seats, and if black and Hispanic students win few. Last school year, of the 14,415 students enrolled in the eight specialized high schools that require a test for admissions, 8,549 were Asian.

Because of the disparity, some have begun calling for an end to the policy of using the test as the sole basis of admission to the schools, and last month, civil rights groups filed a complaint with the federal government, contending that the policy discriminated against students, many of whom are black or Hispanic,

merit sucks...

8 posted on 10/27/2012 10:32:28 AM PDT by Altura Ct.
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To: Kid Shelleen

There’s something terribly wrong with this picture.

These schools are built and paid for by American taxpayers for American kids. They should be promulgating American culture.

Sunday to Sunday grinding school prep is not American culture.

What about soccer, marching band, scouts, and hide & seek till the streetlights come on?

It’s bad school policy and bad parenting to steal your kid’s childhood, for whatever reason.


9 posted on 10/27/2012 10:42:07 AM PDT by Blue Ink
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To: Blue Ink
Sunday to Sunday grinding school prep is not American culture.

Compared to what my grandparents endured during the depression and what others did to survive the dust bowl years in rural Kansas, those kids are on a picnic. Their parents know struggle and what it takes to survive and fortunately they're instilling in their kids the very same ethic to achieve.

But you're right, they're not succumbing to the American culture of today and that's why they're excelling in academics........

10 posted on 10/27/2012 1:19:38 PM PDT by Hot Tabasco (Jab her with a harpoon.....)
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To: Hot Tabasco

“they’re not succumbing to the American culture of today and that’s why they’re excelling in academics........”

They’re excelling in academics because foreigners have figured out how to game our system. If you take your kids’ childhood away, you can snag all the slots in American medical schools — because other people’s kids play a sport or attend the prom.

And please show the evidence that freakish Sunday-to-Sunday grinders built this country or her contributions to Western Civilization — in art, literature, medicine, rockets, computers.

They didn’t. It was American culture that did all that. American kids leading normal American lives.

And this has nothing to do with “survival.” My father lived through the middle of the Depression, had a normal childhood with trick-or-treating in an Ohio small-town school, and went on to become a rocket scientist.

Those small-town Ohio kids aren’t getting in to UCLA anymore because even the smartest of them score 200 points lower on the SAT than the freak grind children of foreign cultures.

Putting your kid in an academic prison to get an advantage over someone else’s kid is as despicable as a baseball player taking steroids.


11 posted on 10/27/2012 1:45:01 PM PDT by Blue Ink
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To: Blue Ink
They’re excelling in academics because foreigners have figured out how to game our system.

You call focusing one's child on academics rather than soccer, football, etc.... gaming the system? You're the one who has a twisted sense of reality dude.

And for what it's worth, Asians are not subjecting their children to 24/7 studying as you are implying. The parents of these children are indeed letting their kids play the same sports you are allowing yours, but they are putting academic excellence before athletic participation........and that's the way it should be.

12 posted on 10/27/2012 2:23:23 PM PDT by Hot Tabasco (Jab her with a harpoon.....)
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To: Blue Ink
And please show the evidence that freakish Sunday-to-Sunday grinders

Back at you dude, show me the proliferation of that "freakish Sunday-to-Sunday grinders" that you are claiming. Who are they or did you just jump to a conclusion based on this article about a Cambodian refugee???????

Those small-town Ohio kids aren’t getting in to UCLA anymore because even the smartest of them score 200 points lower

That's bullshit too. Those kids that study and excel are getting into any of the major colleges they choose. If they're not getting into major colleges it's their fault for not studying harder..Perhaps they should have forgone "American culture" such as soccer, football, dances...etc. and focused more on their academics.

I'm not certain what your problem is but I suspect it is a jealously based subconscious dislike of any immigrant who has come to this country and actually had the audacity to work and study hard and subsequently surpassed both you and your kids in both academics and career employment......

You should be applauding them because they have taken advantage of the very opportunities that have made this country the best in the world........

But yet you degrade them.........go figure!

13 posted on 10/27/2012 2:52:06 PM PDT by Hot Tabasco (Jab her with a harpoon.....)
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To: Jakarta ex-pat

Thanks for the nice comments.

She & others said “The Killing Fields” was only 10% as bad as it really was.


14 posted on 10/27/2012 5:45:42 PM PDT by LiveFreeOrDie2001 (Best Cook on Free Republic! ;-))
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