Gifted Children

: Your question is a sensitive one and I’ll tread carefully with it. Certainly different people would give you different answers. Mine would be to encourage you to remember the tremendous drive and initiative it takes to leave one’s own country and move to another. My ancestors did that many generations ago and so the sacrifice of that gesture is no longer a part of my family’s memory. But if your parents or grandparents left everything behind to come to this country, the least thing you expect is that your children will do well in your new country’s schools.When I teach the children of immigrant families, I am ever impressed with how important education is to the parents of those families. I am ever impressed with that fact that high on the list of reasons for leaving their own country was their belief that their children would be able to be better educated in this country.I think the drive that enabled them to leave or sometimes forced them to leave their homes is the same drive that enables them to do well in school.There are those scholars though who say that Asian children have a natural predisposition for mathematics and the mathematical sciences. Those are the same scholars who say that women do not have a natural prediposition to mathematics and the mathematical sciences. I follow that line of thinking with interest but not everyone subscribes to it.I was wondering if someone could help me with my question in regards
: to why Asian children are over represented in regards to being
: gifted children? Are there reasons for this? Are they academically
: superior to other ethnic groups? Are they biologically
: predisposed? Can someone help me out here?

PASSWORD>aaZe0/9aBQ.mwThis may not be a reply that you are looking for, but I feel it’s important to post it here. I am an Asian American with two highly gifted kids, one with LD, one wihtout LD. The phrase “over reprsented” concerned me. When school administrators talk about “over- representation”, a “quota” maybe implied, which I consider a highly unjust practice. Even though, the idea of over-representation and quota hasn’t directly affected my own kids, I know it affects some children of my Asian American friends.That been said, here is some of my own experience: I am not sure if it is really statistically accurate, nationally, that we have a higher percentage of gifted Asian American children compared to the general population. I do notice a high proportion of Asian American kids in the gifted classes of our local schools. This may have something to do with the fact that we live in a university town, the university, assocaited research park, and spin-off high tech companies are the major industry in our town. Parents of these kids are mostly graduate students, professors, academic professonals, and engineers who tend to value education very much and are highly involved in their kids’s education.

PASSWORD>aaOcGbBVQwa4YThank you Cindy for your comments. I struggle with this issue because I work in a Chicago suburban school and deal with some stereotypes of teachers feeling that Asian Americans are superior in math and sciences. Therefore, because of this stereotype, often I see Asian kids that are average being labeled and placed in AP Honors and other accelerated classes. I often feel that some of these Asian kids have to deal with a “self-fulfilling prophecy” of having to perform beyond their academic ability. Often times, this leads to a tremendous gap between the Asian American high achievers and the Asian American under achievers. Yikes! Statistically, Asians are categorized as the highest ethnic group of being “gifted and talented.” Although, linguistically, 1st generation Asians struggle with the English language. Any recommendations in trying to dispell the “model minority myth.” Or should we continue to believe that Asians are the model minority and sweep the statistical outliers under a rug and not deal with that issue.

PASSWORD>aaZe0/9aBQ.mwHi, James:I agree with your concerns in this issue. I am a professor at UIUC, quite close to Chicago! Some of the classes I teach fulfill the university science requirements, so over the years I have seen a lot of students in these classes. Some of them, of course, are Asian American. I see the difficulties they face, academically, socially, and emotionally, because of stereotyping, Asian American students are considered “over-represented” on this campus, so they don’t receive help as minority students, even though some of the difficulties (e.g., hate crimes) they face are clearly related to the simple fact that they are minority.On the other hand, I used to volunteer in my kids’ gifted classrooms when they were younger. I saw a lot of very bright kids, including Asian kids, in those classrooms. But when these kids apply for colleges, some Asian American kids and parents face the dilemma of “over-reprensentation” and the worry of “quota”. It’s hard to prove for sure that different standards are used in admissions processes due to administartive concerns of “over-representation”, but the worry is certainly there.

Hi-
The main reason for the higher number of gifted asians is due to the fact that the asian culture takes schooling very seriously (for good reason).
I wouldn’t say that it’s a biological difference and more a difference that a higher percentage of asian families put education first over TV, etc.
For the record I’m not asian but I do my best to follow these issues.
I hope this helps.

Cheers,
Erek

James Williams wrote:
> I was wondering if someone could help me with my question in
> regards to why Asian children are over represented in regards
> to being gifted children? Are there reasons for this? Are
> they academically superior to other ethnic groups? Are they
> biologically predisposed? Can someone help me out here?