Why do Asian children do better in school?

Times staff writer Hector Becerra waded in where many fear to tread when he asked why Asian children do better in school than Latinos and African Americans. E-mails poured in. Some questioned his scholarship; other wondered about his integrity, saying the article just reinforced stereotypes. But many engaged in a real and thoughtful conversation. Here's Hector:

But most e-mailers were thoughtful, even if they wondered why I didn’t delve into other issues. One wrote that Asians "outperform the rest of us" not just because of expectations, but because of their "willingness and ability to delay gratification."

That issue came up during my reporting, but I had limited space for the story. Most of the time, it was Latino parents who brought it up.

Antonia Hernandez, 46, said that from when her children were very young, she noticed that the Asian children seemed to wear less expensive clothing than the Latino children.

"I see the Chinese children with cheap tennis shoes, even Payless, and our kids, they want the best sneakers," Hernandez said. "They say, 'How am I going to wear those cheap shoes?' It’s different priorities."

I met Hernandez at a meeting at Lincoln High for the parents of students failing algebra, a graduation requirement.

The rest of the conversation is here. Click and join in...

—Veronique de Turenne

Photo: Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[M. Smith]

Working with kids in the Chicago area with all types of ethnicities - I find that Asian children have a more balanced home life in general: it is full of structure and self improvement. That they focus on learning correctly and doing things right the first time. They are more patient than other kids I work with. They don't mind the time it takes to learn. So many other kids seem to want it spoon fed or get mad when it a concept doesn't click right away - or just don't care.. I don't know if these traits I've noticed fade by generation? That could be another angle to observe. Especially with all cultures.
I mean my grandpa came from Mexico, and he owned a farm and worked like nuts, me I complain that I went to college and everything is too expensive and hard to achieve. 3rd generation and I like happiness more than material items - A curse for having things too easy?

[troy]

This type of generalization only serves to drive wedges between ethnic/racial groups and reinforce baseless stereotypes. Why even have this subject here?

[skeptical taxpayer]

Troy's comment is typical of the old PC view that if you don't talk about things, they will go away. They haven't, have they? They've gotten worse -- just like illegal Latino immigration, which is still a verboten subject to the old-school left as a possible cause of this sort of discrepency and what it does to our schools and all of society.

Young people on the other hand, like those interviewed, don't see why they shouldn't talk about it -- they sure go around wondering anyway. Fact is, Latinos make up over 3/4 LAUSD popoulation, while Asians only 3.8%, and as in this discussion, they're all recent immigrants and "poor." Once Asians become more affluent, they usually move out of LAUSD to places like San Gabriel and if they're really well off, San Marino.

This article notes that Asian immigrants tend to be more educated when they arrive, which makes a huge difference: the Latino immigrant campesinos tend to not have even completed 8th grade, so how can they understand what their kids are studying, or have much higher expectations than that their kids finish high school? The Latino immigrants are from their poorest, least educated class, while other immigrants tend to be middle class or higher.

As an immigrant kid myself, I can relate to the Asians who say parents ignore the A's but if you get a B+ or if one kid is better than you, they're "what's wrong with you?" That can be very negative too, not the "balanced home life" the first poster is claiming -- you're always doing things for approval. It even lasts into expensive private schools, where my daughter's classmate, daughter of first-gen Asian immigrants, was afraid to go home with a B, because she'd be slapped and punished.

BUT this confirms the different sets of expectations non-Latino immigrants have and how it's reflected in achievement. They also don't have a sense of entitlement, of the country giving them asylum owing them a middle class life.

[jueun]

I am an asian and i know that the reason why asians are smarter is because of there parents. The parents punish the children badly if they have performed badly in school or elsewhere. The kids go to after school to get ahead. Another reason is because they do an instrument and it's mostly piano. Playing an instrument helps the child not to quit and keep doing it.

[Erica]

Asian parents (most of them) enforce the education standards very harshly, and because of it, we're taught to excel in school. If we do not excel, then the punishments are rather severe. From my experience with my parents, they do not take away material things, but instead they scolded me, telling me how I was not good enough, attacking emotionally rather than materialistic things.

My parents did not receive a quality education in their homeland, so they do not want they same to happen to the next generation, so they constantly remind you to do well in school, it's not because of just being Asian that we are automatically smart.