American Student: "Oh, a C-. No big deal."
Asian Student: "A C-? I'm going to get whipped by my parents!"That's what seems to go down in the minds of American and Asian students. But the outcomes of those responses are extremely different.
The Asian student fears the wrath of their parents and works harder, eventually getting better grades. On the other hand, the American student deems the bad grade acceptable and continues to accept bad grades in the future. This difference in attitude towards schoolwork is the sole reason that the China and India are surpassing America, which "For Once Blame the Student" by Patrick Welsh and "Two Million Minutes" are arguing.
But is it entirely the American students' fault for being so comfortable with not-so-great grades? I don't think it is. The parents have a role in this too; they allow their kids to be OK with mediocre grades.
Welsh thinks that American students just lack the "motivation, self-discipline, or work ethic of the foreign-born kids." However, I feel that these fundamentals of succeeding were not engrained in the brains of most American kids by their parents like they were in the Chinese and Indian students'. Many Asian students are taught by their parents to work hard and get good grades at a young age. Their kids listen to them because they fear what could happen if they don't get a good grade. The parents took the advice of Machiavelli and instilled fear within the kids (in the form of physical pain) so that the kids would respect their parents wishes for them. Maybe American parents should take a hint from the Asian parents and give their kids some motivation to do well. I'm not saying that American parents should beat their kids, but some other type of motivation like money or more freedom may suffice.
After watching the documentary "Two Million Minutes", you might think that my opening scenario is a load of crap. But really, the documentary was a load of crap because it was biased. The creators of the documentary purposefully misrepresented the U.S.. The "normal" American students they followed were actually top students in their class. The American girl had a 3.94 GPA, and the boy was Senior Class President and a National Merit Scholar. First of all, not every American student sounds that good. Second, the American student population was poorly represented by these two. It seemed like they were always with friends and having fun; it appeared as if they never studied or did homework. I would like to think that most American students study for the most part. Unless I or the people I surround myself with are a part of a minority. Also, it seemed like the Chinese and Indian students were always shown studying or practicing. The gap in the number of academic settings between the three countries in the film was kind of big, with China and India having more academic setting scenes, whereas, U.S. having very little actual academic setting scenes. This bothered me because the documentary was just over dramatizing every difference in study habits, but in really, there were separate situations that impacted the students to act a certain way with their studies. Americans are surrounded with options and opportunities with their futures that they take for granted, which I am guilty of. The Chinese and Indians don't have necessarily this luxury. Sometimes they could even be facing starvation and poverty, which motivates them to do well and allows them to succeed. This might not always be the case, but there are always different circumstances of the students in Asia compared to students in America that make their situations not quite compatible for juxtaposing.
"I Just Wanna Be Average." That is a thought that I frequently have when I'm frustrated with the world. As a ABC (American born Chinese), I sit in a no man's land between American culture and Chinese culture. And might I add, it's pretty rough. My parents are always putting pressure on me to do well in school and succeed. Almost every dinner conversation topic is about college preparation or something that pertains to my future. On the other side, I'm American. I hang out with friends and care about petty high school drama. I play a sport and am involved in extracurricular activities. It's a complicated and demanding lifestyle that usually has some kind of conflict. In some ways, I think that Rose really did not miss out on much with being in Vocational Education for two years. I would not mind having no expectations of me (sometimes), but I understand how the digression of intellect would be the "price" (paragraph 17) when confronted with reality.
Is school everything though? Can't people learn outside of the class just like how the American students had jobs? They probably learned a lot from interacting with other people and learning simple life lessons that will benefit them in the future. If you motivate them to just do homework you would lose all that learning outside of school. Overall, I do agree that American students do need to get motivated, but I still think they should have time outside of school to learn as well.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you when you talk about how there are different circumstances in each country. They video seemed to exaggerate every difference that they had, and I feel that they were implicitly making fun of Chinese and Indian cultures. There's bad things about all three cultures, and everyone is going to have to learn to accept their faults in order to further succeed.
ReplyDeleteI can see your point on how motivation in the form of money or freedom might want to make kids work harder, but if I was getting paid by my parents for good grades, I might just start taking easier classes so that I got good grades for sure, which would actually be counter-productive. Also, you're not the only one whose parents only talk about school and college and crap at the dinner table! My parents do that nonstop! Sucks, right?
ReplyDeleteI think that the motivation to succeed can come from the parents, but it can also come from expectations set by teachers, peers, or by competition i.e. if you see the students around you working hard you realize that you need to do the same to succeed. In my experiences, parent motivation can only go so far and "getting shouted at makes you work harder, not smarter" http://www.businessinsider.com/getting-shouted-at-work-harder-2011-6
ReplyDeleteI also agree with you when the documentary showed the students in other countries studying nonstop and never showed the American students studying. They just gave all Americans a 'label' that they are all slackers and don't study. But like you said, the American girl student had a 3.94 GPA! That's really hard to achieve. And they also didn't show how Americans have extra curriculars they have to focus on, on top of the school work they have to do.
ReplyDeleteLike you and Caroline, my parents have lectures about college and grades and where I will be 10 years from and all the fun stuff. Gets pretty old after a while.