Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!nrl-cmf!ames!killer!elg
From: elg@killer.DALLAS.TX.US (Eric Green)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: Are Americans Intellectually Inferior?
Message-ID: <6991@killer.DALLAS.TX.US>
Date: 1 Feb 89 03:07:34 GMT
References: <15993@joyce.istc.sri.com>
Distribution: usa
Organization: The Unix(R) Connection, Dallas, Texas
Lines: 40

in article <15993@joyce.istc.sri.com>, gds@spam.istc.sri.com (Greg Skinner) says:
> In article <27541@bu-cs.BU.EDU> cd@bu-cs.bu.edu (Clarence K. Din) writes:
>>True, as Norm said, it has to do with culture.  But Asian-American culture
>>enforces this thing that many other cultures do not enforce: DISCIPLINE.
>>Many Asian kids are taught, since childhood, that getting low grades is
>>shameful.  Therefore, to combat the idea of "losing face," the Asian
>>child must continually strive to succeed throughout his/her school
>>years. [...]
> Why are (such-and-such) people so obsessed with the idea of success
> that they deem it shameful to fail?  As if failing made someone a bad
> person!  A person is a good person because of *who* they are, not
> *what* they are able to do.

I'd call Mr. Skinner "sociologically naieve". Like it or not, most of
us identify ourselves by what we do. e.g. if you ask a typical
engineer, "What are you?", he'd reply "An engineer". The only way that
most of us have of telling how "good" a person is, is to observe WHAT
they do... do they exhibit caring behavior? Do they do good,
consciencious work? Let's face it, particles may have inherent properties, but
the only way we have of observing those properties is by observing
their action upon other particles.... it all boils down to "doing", to
action (or inaction). Hazy sentimentalism such as "it's what you are,
not what you do" is even too hazy for sociologists (notoriously "soft"
"science"). 

> hat off to those parents.  In my opinion, it's far better to provide a
> child with care and nurture than to criticize them for failure.

I don't know about Asiatic parents in general. Among Asian-Americans
that I know, criticism is virtually unheard-of, and occurs only for
extreme behavior (e.g. criminal or similiar). Very stoic people. They
lay out expectations. If those expectations are not met, child knows,
parents know, both know they know (since those expectations have been
reiterated regularly for years), criticism or recriminations would be
unnecessary and shameful.

--
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