Immigrant Children in School

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111388928

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111436534&ps=cprs

Two stories about Chinese immigrant students and then a story about Dominican immigrant students. Of course I really relate to the first story. In the second story, a Dominican mother is mad that teachers have prejudices against Latino students but they tend to think Asian students are good in school. Of course, it is a big problem that teachers don't have high expectations for Latino and black students, therefor allowing them to have low expectations for themselves. But actually I was really annoyed that the Dominican mother thought that this was all the school's fault, and that she was offended that the teachers often think the Latino parents don't value education as much as Asian parents. Sounds like she has no idea how hard Asian parents push their children. It is way above and beyond what kind of expectations teachers have. When Asian students do well, it is rarely because of pressure from teachers. I mean, Asian parents are crazy about education and make their kids do all kind of extra workbooks and assignments. My dad made a little math drill program for me to play on the computer to get better at arithmetic. How can you say there is no cultural difference in values?

In fact, an Asian parent would never be offended if a teacher told them they were bad parents. They would completely agree and feel like failures. They would never be mad if a teacher told their child that they're lazy and would never amount to anything. In fact, Chinese parents would thank the teacher for agreeing with them since they tell their children that all the time. Probably, teachers try to be nice to Asian kids since they seem to be in so much anguish even when they're doing well in school. They are probably just trying to make them feel better!

I don't like it when people dismiss the model minority theory as a racist myth. While it is not true for everyone, and it is a stereotype which benefits Asians and hurts blacks and Latinos, there are trends. Some of it has to do with family background - not necessarily class, but the circumstances that brought different immigrant populations to the US. Most has to do with cultural differences, which have to do with historical circumstances of the home countries. I think we should try to talk about what is going on to try to understand it, not just dismiss these things as a coincidence.

And anyway, there is a price that Asian immigrants pay, which is what the first show is about. Everyone should learn from each other, successes as well as pitfalls.