Are our kids falling behind?

[cannuck]

It is just not as simple as blame the teachers, blame the students, or coiuntry A is doing better than country B.

My wife is a teacher with degrees in exceptional education, and I have learned by watching with absolute fascination.   I also have worked in several countries and have close friends with families in Asia.  You need to understand the cultures involved to appreciate you can't just make direct comparisons.

First, in the Asian culture, it is all about results.  How you get them is secondary.  It may be from hard work, or it may simply be simply by cheating.   As long as you accomplish the stated goal, you have lived up to the societal/parental/cultural/peer group demand.  One of the problems grad schools all over this continent have is encountering EVERY applicant from China and many from India with perfect marks, perfect references, perfect EVERYTHING - which is, of course, impossible.   As a result, the status of zero credibility means truly capable and deserving students are often passed over or not even given a shot.

Another issue is the whole business of measuring intellectual capacity.  Scoring at some kind of testing is one thing, UNDERSTANDING the subject matter is a whole different ballgame. In many cases, Asian students who may accel at the art of taking tests come very short of mastering the subject (have seen this all of the way through the post-doc level).   Part of it is due to coming from a culture that uses a contextual language.   When a word or sentence can mean one thing today and something completely different tomorrow, the exactness required of math and science is just not a good fit.  Our language and culture, due to good fortune, is far more suitable to achieve such precision and consistency of fact.  It just happens that the simplicity that academia tries to find in measuring learning is not very accurate when trying to plumb the depths of understanding - that not even our more flexible language can account for.

We have a pair of science geeks for kids.  They didn't get there by accident.  They started by having a full time teacher who understood early childhood and gave a full effort 24x7 for over 20 years to get them there. We chose public education for their day schools, as the social skills are critical.  It just so happens that even the ordinary Canadian (OK - SK at least) system will accommodate bright children.  They probably spent more time learning outside of their public classroom (they started in music - VERY beneficial to science and math - at 3 and 4) and were sent to other schools for math and sciences when in primary school, as well as actel classes.  I can not say they had an endless stream of phenom teachers, but they had a Mother who WAS just that, and at least one exceptionally good teacher everywhere they went - INCLUDING the public system.  There is simply no way you can fully satisfy a child's curiosity and ability to learn - but you CAN kill it off by complacency over time.  It is completely unreasonable to expect to simply give you children to strangers at school and expect them to return to you 13 years later a budding genius.   The part that is missing in our culture, you have to provide as parents - and if you do, the resources are available here to make it happen.  I always find it strange that people completely understand the effort and dedication of parents who will go to the end of the world to try (or succeed) in making their kid a hockey star or olympic skater, but are miffed by parents who spend easily as much time, effort and MONEY to give their kids a decent science education. 

Edited May 14, 2017 by cannuck

[Bonam]

2 hours ago, cannuck said:

I also have worked in several countries and have close friends with families in Asia.  You need to understand the cultures involved to appreciate you can't just make direct comparisons.

...

 I always find it strange that people completely understand the effort and dedication of parents who will go to the end of the world to try (or succeed) in making their kid a hockey star or olympic skater, but are miffed by parents who spend easily as much time, effort and MONEY to give their kids a decent science education. 

Given that opening sentence, you shouldn't find it strange. As you said, it's all about culture. And North American culture celebrates and exalts athletics and performing arts but degrades "nerds", distrusts scientists, and loathes the fact that technical people can get decent paying jobs.