A common stereotype in American society is that Asians are smart, and this has been extended to that Asian Students in general are the smartest students in our schools today. So I posed the question, Are Asian Students smarter? In my investigation, I have found a few answers that can explain this stereotype.

 

When I searched “Are Asian Students Smarter than Caucasian Students,” on Google I found a few website with information relevant to my question. The first website that I found was http://freewill.typepad.com/genetics/2007/01/

success_of_asia.html.

 Here a student of genetics takes a different approach to this question. He says that he does not think that Asians are smarter than everyone else, in the fact that he thinks everyone has the same capacity. However, he does analyze the Asian culture. He says that Asians tend to do better in academic courses because of their memorization capacity. He also explains how the job of a young Asian is to be a student. They are taught at a young age to excel in academics and place gratification last. Asian students he says tend to feel a constant pressure to do well, as if it were the “honorable thing,” and that they are constantly in fear of social shame. He blames all these things on underlying genes in Asians. This of course it absolutely his opinion, however I do feel it gives an important background into my question.

            The next site that I found was called.

http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/pathways/asian/gifted.htm. Now this was an actually statistical study done by two students at the St. John’s University. In their investigation they found that some factors that might influence Asian Students to do better than Caucasian students, as the previous person said was Culture and Family. They explain how education is the most important thing in the Asian home. Their competitiveness they say is caused by how highly they hold honor and prestige, and that most Asian students feel a constant pressure that their academic success reflects their family’s success. They also explain that Asian American parents take a very active role in their children’s education. By supervising their homework, providing a support through means of hiring tutors for their children, or educational instruments beyond what is required. Whereas they say Caucasian parents tend to take a more passive role in their child’s education, allowing them to choose their own path at their own pace. They explain that Asian parents believe that the success of their children depends greatly on their effort and not so much as their abilities. However, American parents tend to believe that a great portion of a child’s success depends on natural born ability.

Afterwards I searched “Asian Students” on Google, and I found this website. http://www.imdiversity.com/villages/asian/education_

academia_study/voa_asian_achievement_1205.asp

Here they begin by explaining how Asians make only 4% of the American population, yet 20% of college students are Asian. One would expect to see the proportion of the population of Asians to be equal to that of the proportion of Asian Students in college; however we notice that it is much greater. Here they interview a surgeon Soo Kim Abboud. She explains how her parents took a very active role in their educational upbringing. She recalls how her parents used to assist her on her home work, and would help her with any questions that she had even if they did not know the answer themselves, they would look it up and teach it to her. She also explains how she had a much stricter upbringing than others. She explains that education was first, and that she was very restricted on how much she could go out. For example she was not allowed to go out on the weekdays unlike her Caucasian friends. Soo also shares a statistic. She says that in a survey of Students it was found that only 58% of Caucasian students expected to graduate from college, where as 85% of Korean and Japanese students expected to graduate, and 95% of Indian students expected to graduate.

            Many people tend to agree on factor to explain why people think that Asian students do better in academics than Caucasian students. They all say it is due to their cultural differences and their family influences.