Too Asian?

*This article was originally titled “‘Too Asian’?” For Maclean's response to the controversy it has generated, click here. 
Maclean's has now retitled the article:
*The enrollment controversy

Worries that efforts in the U.S. to limit enrollment of Asian students in top universities may migrate to Canada. The phrase “Too Asian?” is a direct quote from the title of a panel discussion at the 2006 meeting of the National Association for College Admission Counseling where experts examined the growing tendency among U.S. university admission officers to view Asian applicants as a homogenous group. The evidence suggests some of the most prestigious schools in the U.S. have abandoned merit as the basis for admission for more racially significant—and racist—criteria.

Mr. Layton, the freshman councillor for Ward 19, Trinity-Spadina (Toronto), proposes to consume valuable time at the new city council’s very first business meeting with a demand for an apology from Maclean’s magazine. Seconded by Kristyn Wong-Tam of Ward 27, Toronto Centre-Rosedale, his motion recommends that “Toronto City Council disassociate itself from the views expressed by Maclean’s in its article entitled ‘Too Asian?’* and request that Maclean’s apologize unreservedly for the negative stereotyping of the Asian-Canadian community.”

I hardly know what to think of this item. Maclean's has gone downhill since it has shortened the depth and breadth of articles. It read more like People than a Canadian journalist newsmag. That said, you get what you pay for.


What a Toronto city council has to do with a national magazine, I don't know.  Secondly, the title is meant to attract attention to a bizarre trend in the US of racially streaming students, and deselecting merit as a criterea, it arose from the name of a conference. This has slipped by many who complain. In fact, the point of the article seems to slip from many minds.


Education and the cultures around it differ around the world. As with any system, a work ethic makes all the difference. We know that Asian countries have more controls around who goes to which schools. You must study your way into a 'good' school. Discipline and hard work makes for higher marks. The value of education and culture and attitudes towards it differ by many factors. It varies by country, ethnic group, region, towns and communities. That said, within one classroom you can find a wide range of attitudes by family and the students you teach. We do know that what you put in comes out. 


We know that parents continually for for or against homework, field trips, extracurricular activities, too much work, or too much play, too little or too much parental involvement, and so on. I found that the best students were raised in a climate or hard work, caring, and family investment in the process, as much as my efforts. Kids who like to work and play, live and learn. Kids who had a goal and a dream and achieved it.


Too much pressure results in tragedy, too.

The thing is that  'Suicide Rates Rising Among Asian Americans'

At Cornell University, for instance, 13 of the 21 student suicide victims between 1996 and 2006 were Asians or Asian Americans. That picture is not complete unless you consider that Asians make up of only 14 percent of the total Cornell student body.