Not really tangential, since in traditional Chinese culture, doing well in school is almost the only way for students to please their parents. My 6th graders in Taiwan didn't even have household chores because they were supposed to concentrate on school and their cram school lessons (like the ones I taught on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons when the kids got out of school early).
We are talking about cultural values here, in addition to the value of college, education as assimilation, and a few other complex issues.
I don't know that I would have given the College is Important speech when I was teaching on the smaller island where 3/4 of the students were indigenous. For one thing, it would be cruel. They would have to leave their island to finish a four-year degree, and many of them had no intention of doing that. Besides, I was a new (to the island) teacher from North America, and nobody was taking me seriously anyway.
