Quincy High is 22 percent Asian; why is the math club 94.4 percent Asian? uuuuhhhhh... no quotas???
Posted on 05/18/2005 5:23:14 PM PDT by lsilver5
By MICHAEL WINERIP Published: May 18, 2005 QUINCY, Mass.
This year's math club at Quincy High School in Massachusetts, where Evelyn Ryan, far right, has been the adviser since 1999. Many club members have gone on to attend top-flight United States colleges. While the ethnic mix shifted some, families move here for the same reason my parents did 50 years ago: The housing is affordable, the subway ride to Boston is short, and Quincy public schools still send their top students to the best colleges. Though there has been an influx of Asian immigrants since the 1980's and most of the Jewish families have moved away, Quincy High remains as it was when I was a teenager, predominantly white and working-class.
So it was a surprise to see the photograph in the weekly paper, The Quincy Sun. There, on Page 7, was the Quincy High math club, and 17 of 18 members were Asian. Mathematically, it made no sense. Quincy High is 22 percent Asian; why is the math club 94.4 percent Asian?
So the better question is: Why do Asians gravitate to math? And the answer, at least at Quincy High, is it's their best shot to excel in a new land.
(Excerpt) Read more at query.nytimes.com ...
We don't. We play and ignore math. We speak dialect.
Quincy High is 22 percent Asian; why is the math club 94.4 percent Asian? uuuuhhhhh... no quotas???
We don't ignore math in my family. My daughters are tops in their classes, and my son just passed a test so that he can skip 6th grade math. His goal is to pass a test next year so that he can skip 8th grade math. He is much better than me at math, and I was good.
My daughters are doing well also, but they are only in 2nd grade. We'll see how they do in the coming years.
They are smarter than the other races represented in the school..
I teach math at a two-year postsecondary school with high tuition. Most of my students call it "maff."
But, surprisingly, if you study all the time when you are young, you seem to become much smarter.
There was a famous study that looked for student musicians with a high level of musical talent who didn't have to practice as much. None were found. In every case, those who practiced the most, played the best.
So if you study math all the time, regardless of your race, you will soon develop a great ability in the subject. People will say you must be really smart at math.
Gravitating to math and excelling in math are different. Hard work, as you say, is the key but why does one work hard? What is the motivation?
We are all competitive and, as such, we emulate our peer group and try to be the best at whatever is of interest to that group. In this case, Sixin was a gifted and interested math student who instigated the start of the math club. She then rounded up a group of peers, all Asian because that is who she knew and could persuade. They socialized and competed with each other and, in this case, learned math together.
The few whites who looked in on the club did not have that peer group relationship so they weren't as interested. There was also the language difficulty.
In my own personal experience I have found Asians and Germans to seem naturally talented in math. Whether that is universally true or not I do not know.
Words are simply symbols for thought as are math symbols. Math is a universal language based on logic. It is an excellent foundation for anything else one would care to do. I envy mathematicians although they often get impatient with the rest of us.
Besides welfare and cleaning dishes, what good are south of the border illegals doing that is worth noticing.
Actually they are not smarter. Not by a long shot. What happens is that they study far harder (one), and that they also (and this is the most important reason) have different expectations when it comes to grades. I know many people who are quite comfortable with getting a C, and a multitude who would go on a euphoric high after getting a slew of Bs. However the vast majority of Asian immigrants I know had their sights set on straight As (or at least an A average). And consequently they studied for such grades.
There is something in the Bible that I strive to live by, and it is a maxim/challenge/warning/bastion that has profound ramifications. It basically states 'Without vision My people perish.' The reason I am bringing that up is due to the fact that one of the greatest discoveries I ever made was that having a definite vision is paramount. How you are able to perceive things/issues/life/ ....grades ....can make astounding differences in how the results one gets (be it from life, marriage, career ....exams).
Most people are quite mediocre in their outlooks, and they are willing to settle for something that is 'ok' since, after all, it is 'ok.' And there is nothing necessarily wrong with 'ok.' The problem is that one tends to get what they are willing to settle for, thus if you are willing to settle for (going itno the facet of academics) a 'C' then by golly-wog a 'C' you will get. If you are willing to settle for some dreary career then guess what? A career rife with ennui you will get. If you are willing to settle for a spouse that you know in your heart is beneath you, then guess what? You are not going to wed a Prince/Princess charming!
Many Asian immigrants have families that expect them to get stellar grades. And this creates an outlook in many of them where they consistently aim at excellence, when many of their peers are comfortable with 'a pass.' Now, to this vision add the fact that they study non-stop. Go to any university library at night and see who is there .....a good percentage will be Asian immigrants (at the very least the percentage represented there will be far larger than the school percentage strata). Now, when there is a concert at school go and see who is there.
Basically it is not that they are 'smarter' but more along the lines that they have different perceptions coupled with a nigh zealous (actually not nigh but a truly zealous) approach to study. And the thing is if you aim for the best, and you prepare for it, chances are you will achieve those hgih grades.
One more thing. Most of my competitors in college were Asian immigrants. Not all by any measure, but most. The interesting thing is my strongest competition was not Asian ....it was American. Secondly the Asians in class never came close to making me sweat. Not even close. Thirdly they studied far longer than I and the top American students, and yet got the same results. Moreover many seemed to have substantial difficulties when it came to questions that required imaginative responses (although I attribute this to some of them having problems comprehending certain nuances of the English language). And lastly the guys who kept me up at night were the top echelon American kids who were not only smart but dedicated themselves. And when it came to creative stuff (for example coming up with a business plan or developing unorthodox fiscal stratagems) my toughest competition was definitely American not Asian.
In conclusion let me say this. The chief advantage that many Asians have is that they dedicate themselves to their schoolwork far more than most people, and that they have high targets set by them and for them (their families doing the latter). The combination of high goals and hard work will almost always lead to exemplary results.
And this combination would work for anyone. If people dedicated themselves to the right things in the right proportions things would definitely even out. But until you see the ratio of people in the school library match the ratio of people in the college then there will always be a skewed result curve.
My understanding is the Chinese languages lend themselves to math comprehension. This combined with hard work and strong family values equate to these success stories. Rarely do we see Asian-American girls getting pregnant out of wedlock. There is a joke in these parts that says MIT actually stands for "Made In Taiwan."
Obviously, these are generalizations. It's unfair to call any group a "model minority." However, the extreme efforts the PC establishment undertakes to minimize Asian-American representation on elite campuses speaks volumes.
Now, if they could only learn to drive. :)
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