The model student.

In yesterday's New York Times, Op-Ed columnist Nicholas Kristof pondered the question of why Asian-Americans tend to do so much better academically than Americans of other racial groups. The article is Times Select, so the link is probably useless to most of you. Either way, you should try to get a copy of yesterday's paper, since the article makes a good attempt to answer a difficult question about American education, and I agree with the author wholeheartedly. The study of cultural and racial differences as a determining factor in academic performance has always been especially interesting to me.

Mr. Kristof presents the statistics (mostly SAT scores) as well as some anecdotes, which all lead to the conclusion that Asian-American students are much more inclined to do well academically than other Americans. He then proceeds to propose possible explanations for this apparent phenomenon - genetics? culture? family values? Of course, the inevitable conclusion is that it has to do with all of that, and more.

However, the most valuable lesson to be derived from such analysis is the notable difference in cultural attitudes toward education. In this country, the focus is always on financial success. The heroes who are glorified by our culture are usually not the most educated people, but rather the wealthiest - movie stars, athletes, entrepreneurs. In the Soviet Union, and in China (and possibly in numerous other countries, but I can't comment with any authority), the focus has always been drastically different. There, success is measured by a person's level of education. I suppose that would explain why teachers are so highly regarded in those societies. For further emphasis, Mr. Kristof relates the anecdote of Chinese villages erecting statues to young men who accomplish the Chinese equivalent of scoring a perfect 1600 on the SAT.

I have always held the belief that one single phrase was primarily responsible for the not-so-diverse student populations of Bronx Science and Stuyvesant high schools. The motivational power of "we left our home and came to America so that you could have the opportunity to go to an Ivy League University" should not to be underestimated! Perhaps I could do some study to demonstrate that success on standardized tests is directly proportional to the distance that one had to travel to come to the United States.