Category Archives: Education

Highlighted Comment on David Brooks’s Article

Check out David Brooks’s column: It’s Not About You.  David Brooks is my favorite NY Times columnist.

Then check out my comment, which got highlighted!  “Highlighted” means that it’s one of the more interesting comments, and it therefore goes to the front page of the comments. Woo hoo! And I commented with a book that a reader recommended, on a topic that we’ve been discussing lots at bigWOWO: Education.

Anyway, my comment to David Brooks is below. Check out the original article, and sound off to my sound off if you so please!

David,

Posted in Education, media | Tagged , | 2 Comments

No Admissions Advantages for Low Income Students

Thanks, MLC, for this article: Top Colleges Overlook Low-Income Students. See below:

Several years ago, William Bowen, a former president of Princeton, and two other researchers found that top colleges gave no admissions advantage to low-income students, despite claims to the contrary. Children of alumni received an advantage. Minorities (except Asians) and athletes received an even bigger advantage. But all else equal, a low-income applicant was no more likely to get in than a high-income applicant with the same SAT score. It’s pretty hard to call that meritocracy.

Posted in Asian American, Education | Tagged | 4 Comments

TEDx: Yong Zhao on Education

Caught the video above at the Alpha Asian. It’s a Tedx conference where Chinese American professor Yong Zhao discusses education and what we need for the future. He does a comparison between education in Asia and the U.S. His view is that we need to build children’s strengths rather than constantly trying to fix their deficits. In America, with the American emphasis on creativity, this means focusing on creativity and confidence.

Posted in Asian American, Education | Tagged | 1 Comment

Salman Khan’s Khan Academy

Check out the TED video above. The Khan Academy has got to be one of the coolest sites ever…check it out here. Math, science, banking, astronomy, economics–you can learn almost anything on Salman Khan’s site. He has over 2,100 YouTube videos, all narrated and created by him, where he teaches subjects using only a computer writing pad and his own voice. I first heard about this from my uncle, and then I read about it yesterday on 8Asians, but I only watched his videos yesterday.

Posted in Education | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Literary Fiction vs. Realistic Fiction and the Literary Hierarchy

A week ago, I picked up a novel from the library that had been long-listed for the Man Booker Prize.  I picked the book because of the plot–it sounded like a novel that dealt with modern themes of suburban modern living, and because I’m a modern person who lives in a suburb, I thought it might appeal to me.

Posted in books, Education, Knowledge | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

Podcast with ChineseMom on American culture, education, and raising kids

After six months of no podcasts, we finally put one together.  I had the opportunity to speak with ChineseMom last night.  ChineseMom is a graduate of Beijing University (北大) undergrad and UCLA grad school, and we had the opportunity to discuss immigration, culture, education, and raising kids.  It’s a 52 minute podcast at 24 megs.  Download it here, or listen to it here:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Posted in Asian American, Education, parenting, Podcasts | Tagged , , | 23 Comments

Affirmative Action, and How We Hurt Our Children

Thanks to Francis for sending this article: High-achieving Asian-Americans are being shut out of top schools.

It’s the same old (educational) institutional racism that everyone is aware of but few people do anything about–Asian Americans have a MUCH higher bar in gaining admissions to selective colleges, and people justify it by showing how we’re supposedly over-represented.  The article is free, so check it out.  The stats are really sad:

Posted in Asian American, Education | Tagged | 88 Comments

Dissuading Chinese Women from Marrying For Money

Thanks, MLC, for sending this one: Girls to learn sour side of relying on ‘sugar daddies’. The article begins:

Girls in South China’s Guangdong province will get a crash course on how to resist the sweet talk of “sugar daddies” when schools start teaching them about self-respect.

The pilot project is aimed at telling girls at middle and elementary schools how to avoid falling into the clutches of older, richer men and stand on their own two feet.

“The education will focus on self-esteem, self-confidence, self-reliance and self-improvement,” said Lei Yulan, vice-governor of Guangdong and director of the Working Committee on Children and Women of Guangdong province.

Posted in Activism, Education | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Are Elite Educations Worth It?

I’ve been meaning to blog about this article since the week before Amy Chua: The Disadvantage of an Elite Education.  When M first posted it on another site (thanks, M), I said that I agreed with the article.  Immediately a Columbia grad on the site started getting in my face, saying that only people who couldn’t make it into Ivy League colleges would agree with it.  He got real mad.  Yikes!

Posted in Education | Tagged , | 10 Comments

Martin Jacques: Understanding the Rise of China

Thanks to the Alpha Asian, who posted the TED talk above in which Martin Jacques talks about the rise of China.  From my own perspective as a Chinese American dude, this TED talk was among the most interesting I’ve heard.  The thesis of the talk is that Americans fail to understand China for three reasons:

1. The Civilization State vs. The Nation-State

2. The Chinese Perception of Race

3. The Chinese Relationship with Government

I don’t know what the commenters on this blog think, but I highly recommend this talk.

Posted in Asian American, Education | Tagged , | 20 Comments