Originally Posted by OHGrandma
Originally Posted by Lina
Meh, I wanted to stay as far away from that book as possible after I read that he thought the reason for Asian kids' success is that their parents farmed rice paddies.


Lina, if you've never had to do hard physical labor, you don't know the incentive there is to achieve academically. There is a reward in physical labor, but there is more prestige and usually more money in mental labor. Please keep an open mind to opposing opinions.

Him assuming "Asians" are good at math was already stereotypical, but I thought that back then a large number of members of quite a few cultures did hard farm work. How come he singles out Asians?

I can't speak for other "Asians", but as far as I know my grandparents or parents have never farmed a rice paddy, and were entirely self-motivated.

This just stood out to me because a lot of people were picking on it, and I thought it was just ridiculous, but I don't know if the rest of the book was good or bad. My first impression of the book wasn't too great, though. smirk