Hmmmmm, That's Interesting

I always enjoy finding little factoids or trivia that make me go "hmmmmmmmm".

I came across several items over the past week.

First, which country do you think exports the most beef and veal?

The United States, Argentina, Australia or Spain came to my mind.

Wrong.

I never would have guessed India is the world's largest exporter of beef and veal in one hundred years.  I thought that cows were considered sacred in much of India.  From looking at this data they are sacred in India but not so much if they are leaving the country for someone else's hamburger.



Source:  John Mauldin, Thoughts From The Frontline, 3/13/13

John Mauldin points out that at one time Argentina was the world's largest beef exporter.  They have fallen to  #11. Brazil now has a herd of cattle that is four times that of Argentina.  What has happened?  Argentina's socialist government has instituted a series of  price controls and export restrictions since the Peron era in a futile attempt to keep prices low for the masses.  The only result has been that fewer and fewer cattle are being raised as the rewards to the ranchers were taken away.  The only thing that has happened is the entire country has gotten poorer.

The second "hmmmm" moment came when I saw this article about the incoming class at New York City's Stuyvesant High School.  Admission to the city's eight most competitive high schools is decided exclusively by test results on the specialized high school admissions test (SHSAT) that 8th graders take.  28,000 took the test for just over 5,000 open spots in the Class of 2017.

What I found interesting is the demographic breakdown of the admission offers at Stuyvesant that are based solely on the results of this competitive examination.

177  white students
24    Hispanice students
9      black students
620  Asian students

The admissions at two of the other competitive high schools which are also based entirely on the results of the test were similar.

Bronx Science offered admission to 25 black students; 54 Latino students; 239 white students; 489 Asian students; and 3 American Indian/Alaskan Native students.

Brooklyn Tech offered admission to 110 black students; 134 Latino students; 451 white students; 960 Asian students; and 5 American Indian/Alaskan Native students.

To put this in context this is the demographic breakdown of the enrollment in the New York Public Schools.

14%  white
40%  Hispanic
31%  black
15%  Asian

In other words, Asian students make up 15% of the enrollment of the school district but they earned 75% of the spots in the city's most competitive high school.  Hispanics and blacks make up 71% of the enrollment in New York City but only 4% of these students will be a part of this year's entering class at Stuyvesant.  The remaining 21% are white students.

Predictably, when I researched this subject I found that last year a coaltion of educational and civil rights groups brought a federal lawsuit alleging that the SHSAT is racially discriminatory.  It is not clear to me how the test is discriminatory in that Asian students (including many who have parents who were not born in the United States and for whom English is a second language) can do so well and the other ethnic groups can do so poorly.

Might it have something to do with the fact that education is stressed in most Asian homes and these parents expect their students to do well?  See my post from 2011 on Parenting Principles Perspective in which I wrote.

Asians make up 19% of the class of 2013 at Harvard and 18% at Princeton.  By comparison Asian Americans only represent about 4% of the U.S. population.  I walked around the campus of UC Berkeley a couple of years ago and it seemed that every other student was Asian.  According to Berkeleyside, the Fall, 2010 number is 45.7%.  12% of Californians are Asian. I was not far off.

You see the same pattern of accomplishment in music.  If you see a young prodigy on the violin or piano there is a good chance you will see it is someone of Asian descent.

Why is this?

Malcolm Gladwell in his book, Outliers (which I recommend as one my best reads of 2010) attributes it to a "rice paddy" attitude.  Simply stated, tending to a rice paddy is a 360 day, 3,000 hour per year activity.  It is exacting, hard work where effort and dedication make a huge difference in results.  The peasants that tended these rice paddies may be long gone but the culture carries on in their progeny.  Gladwell makes the point that there is nothing that indicates that Asians are naturally any better at math, science or music but each requires hard work, persistence and doggedness.  It is more attitude than aptitude.

You probably have seen what I am talking about.  The other kids are goofing around on the steps to the public library or skateboarding along the sidewalk.  The Asian kids are inside the library with their parents finding another book to read.

I also referenced Amy Chua's book, The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, and cited three main differences in parenting styles between Asian and Western parenting styles that she believes are important.

Western parents are too concerned about their children's self esteem. Chinese are not. Asians assume strength in their children, not fragility. Therefore, they push hard on them and hold them accountable for results.

Chinese parents believe their children owe them something. Many Americans seem to believe that since they were responsible for bringing the child into the world that they owe the child in some way.

Asians believe they know what is best for their children and override their children's own preferences and desires. Chinese parents understand that nothing is fun until you're good at it. To get good at anything you have to work, and children on their own never want to work, which is why it is crucial to override their preferences.

You may disagree with the approach but it is difficult to argue with the results when you look at the enrollment trends at our nation's most competitive schools.  It may be time for the rest of us to take a look at ourselves and start looking for more accountability in our parenting.  Of course, for many children it would be nice just to have at least one accountable parent to begin with.  Simply too many don't even have that. 

Finally, I thought it was interesting that the History Channel's mini-series The Bible attracted 13.1 million viewers and actually topped American Idol's 12.8 million viewers on Wednesday in the weekly ratings.  The Bible does spend a fair amount of time on The Ten Commandants.  What does the Second Commandment say?

“You shall not make for yourself an idol or a likeness of anything in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the waters under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them…” (Ex. 20:4,5a).

Hmmmm, now that is really interesting.  There still may be some hope left.