Invasion of the Tiger Moms

The Mason, Ohio school district near me recently announced its list of National Merit Semifinalists.

20 students were recognized with that high academic honor.

Do you notice anything?

It appears that all 20 students are of Asian heritage.

The names suggest that most are children of recent immigrants.

Whites comprise 50% of the student population in Mason. Asians are 32%.

William Mason High School
Mason, Oho
Student Population
Source: https://www.publicschoolreview.com/william-mason-high-school-profile

How is it that 100% of the National Merit Semifinalists in the school are Asian?

Is there a story behind the numbers?

First, consider the sheer number of Asian students in that suburban Cincinnati school district.

Mason High School has 3,435 students in grade 9-12 but 32% are Asian--that is almost 1,100 students.

10 years ago Mason was 77% White and only 16% Asian.

The Asian student population has doubled in ten years.

20 years ago Mason was 88% White and only 9% Asian.

30 years ago Mason was 96% White and only 4% were Black, Hispanic and Asian COMBINED.

The share of Black and Hispanic students has remained relatively stable at 6% each over the last 20 years.

You can see the same general trend in suburban Dallas-Ft.Worth.

Consider the changes in the student population in Frisco, Texas that is even more profound.

The large influx of Asian students in Texas suburban school districts, in addition to the large existing Hispanic population in the state, means that White students now make up only 24% of public school enrollment in the state.

Enrollment at the University of Texas-Austin is now only 30% White. It was 43% as recently as 2017.

Asians now make up 23% of the undergraduate enrollment at UT. Hispanics are 26%.

This was highlighted in this photo that went viral on social media of UT students cheering at the recent Texas-Ohio State football game.

Source: https://x.com/bofrench/status/2099118916282810552/photo/1

The percentage of the student body that are White Males at Texas---13%.

Communities like Mason and Frisco used to be described as White suburban enclaves.

That is no longer true in any respect.

The demographic makeup of many of these suburban areas and the school population has been transformed.

Part of the story of why every National Merit student is Asian at Mason are the pure numbers of Asians in the school today compared to 10, 20 or 30 years ago.

However, that is only part of the story.

Asians make up only 32% of the student body in Mason but make up 100% of the top students.

Why is that?

This data on the amount of homework Asian students do compared to other students explains a lot.

Asian American teens spend over 2x as much time on homework as White or Hispanic teens and almost 4x as much as Black students.

Why are Asian American teens willing to put that much effort in outside of the classroom?

The answer is that they likely have a Tiger Mom at home.

I first saw the term "Tiger Mom" when I came across Amy Chua's book, "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother" 15 years ago.

I wrote about Chua and her parenting philosophy in one of the very first blog posts of BeeLine in January, 2011.

Chua had written an essay in The Wall Street Journal that was done to promote the upcoming release of her book.

This is an excerpt from that essay.

A lot of people wonder how Chinese parents raise such stereotypically successful kids. They wonder what these parents do to produce so many math whizzes and music prodigies, what it's like inside the family, and whether they could do it too. Well, I can tell them, because I've done it. Here are some things my daughters, Sophia and Louisa, were never allowed to do:

• attend a sleepover

• have a playdate

• be in a school play

• complain about not being in a school play

• watch TV or play computer games

• choose their own extracurricular activities

• get any grade less than an A

• not be the No. 1 student in every subject except gym and drama

• play any instrument other than the piano or violin

Chua is of Chinese heritage but I believer her parental attitude is generally shared by most Asians.

She cites three major differences between Asian and Western parenting styles.

• 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.

What lessons can be learned from all of this?

Parents of Asian ancestry are not as concerned about the self-esteem of their children as Western parents are. They push their children to work hard and hold them accountable for results.

In order to excel at anything you need to work at it. Few children will naturally want to work or practice the necessary time to excel. Asian parents push their children to work hard and are not as concerned about overriding what the child wants to do as Western parents are.

Asian parents actually create a "low-esteem" environment for their children. They do not praise their children for their talent. They praise their children for their work ethic and effort. Their success is a function of the expectations of the family and just plain old hard work, practice and study.

Malcolm Gladwell in his book, "Outliers" , 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.

I think it also stems from another factor. The sheer number of people on the Asian continent that anyone has to compete with in that part of the world. It is simply harder to feel that you are unique or special when you are competing against BILLIONS of other people.

Consider this graphic of world population by longitude.

Source: https://engaging-data.com/population-latitude-longitude/

The attitudes from that part of the world carries over to those from Asia who immigrate to the United States.

In addition to that "race paddy" attitude, these people are grateful to be in the United States and appreciate the opportunity it provides to them and their family. They are doubly motivated that the opportunities provided by the United States are not wasted by their children.

It was once said that the suburbs were ruled by Soccer Moms.

That is no longer true.

The suburbs are increasingly ruled by those Tiger Moms.

You can see it in Mason and Frisco.