Two Million Minutes- Three Million Blogposts.

Response to Two Million Minutes:

"Asian" has become more than an adjective in our culture. It has become a common "fact" that those of an Asian or Indian decent are flat out smarter than those steriotypical Americans. Though this is probably not true, it has become a steriotype of its own. If you are Asian in our school you are assumed to be smart. You are assumed to be getting strait A's, doing well on the SAT's, and taking difficult classes with the aim of getting into prestigious colleges. The same goes for those who are Indian.

This isn't to say that Americans are thought by everyone else to be stupid. No one I have met thinks any less of us because of the comparison to other cultures. Nor do I feel that this steriotype reflects at all on our school system. There is nothing the school could do to encourage white Americans to live up to Asian or Indian expectations. Because that is the main difference between our cultures: expectations. Because we were not raised the same way, at least in most cases, we were taught different values. Those raised by "typical" Asian or Indian families were taught that studies and academic achivements were of the uptmost importance. That doing perfectly in school and getting into an acceptable university is all that really matters at this point in our lives. And really, I can see the truth in that. However, families like mine didn't bring me up thinking that way. I was taught that yes, of course I should do well in school and of course I should try my best in all areas of my academics. However, I was also taught to value the social aspect of my highschool and college years. I was taught to have fun, to enjoy the journey while I could. For this reason, I will willingly admit that I probably do not place as much stock in academics as some from Indian or Asian scholars. I probably do not study as hard, and for that reason I know I do not do quite as well.

I do not, as I said before, think there is anything a school could do to change this steriotype. I also do not believe that schools could change the distribution of our grades in relation to our cultural backgrounds. Schools already encourage us to do as well as we can, to try our best, and to study our hardest. For reasons prior mentioned, some of us tend to do better than others. Unless we were to go all the way back to our childhood, to rewire the way we think and to have our parents reteach us the values we have learned, the way we do things cannot be changed now. There is nothing to be done in the American school system.

So how do we solve the "problems" arising about Asians and Indiand beating out Americans for spots in ivy league American schools? On one hand, there is no problem. They clearly deserve the spots, more so than all the Americans they beat out. If they deserve the spots more, whose to say they shouldn't get them? On the other hand, people have argued that since it is "American" tax dollars going toward the American education, we deserve spots as well. Though I do not personally think I agree with this, it is a fair point. For this reason, I have no answer to the question I posed. America could certainly try as a whole to work harder, to have more of our scholars end up in the rigorous ivy league programs. However, I doubt that anything would happen even if we tried. The cycle, it seems, will keep the way it has been going until a better solution is proposed.