Education and Cultures Collide in the US (5/5)

August 3, 2010

Another example may be found at Nogales High School, where I taught. When I was there, seventy percent of the student population was Hispanic/Latino and less than 5% of my students turned in the assigned homework or did the reading. However, most of my Asian students did the homework and the reading—they were among the 5%.

Percentage of Students Scoring at Proficient or Advanced for English-Language Arts at Nogales High School:

Hispanic or Latino 36%
African American 37%
White 52%
Filipino 60%
Asian 70%

California High School Exit Examination Results by Student (ethnic) Group

Hispanic or Latino 37.5%
African American 40%
White (no data)
Filipino 65.5%
Asian 85.7%

Some will say, as my foolish “old” friend will argue, that it is the teacher’s responsibility to teach the kids. My reply is that “few” teachers can teach a kid who won’t cooperate, refuses to read daily for thirty minutes to an hour and will not do homework. After all, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.

What kind of teacher was I? Click here to find out out about Lloyd Lofthouse as a teacher. Make sure to scroll and read everything on this page.

The success of China’s civilization and culture for several-thousand years is due to the value the Chinese put on an education, which appears much higher than other cultures. The home environment and the parents are the difference.

Return to Education and Cultures Collide in the US (4/5)

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Education and Cultures Collide in the US (4/5)

August 2, 2010

Swan, who would be classified Asian American, graduated from high school and was accepted to Stanford University. She always did her homework. At home, the TV was off Monday through Saturday with only an hour or two allowed on Sunday. Swan read “many” books while growing up and did her homework without a fight. Visiting the library weekly was common.

In fact, if all parents created a proper learning environment at home, doing schoolwork and reading follows close behind.

Most kids who attend public schools in the US have as many as 80 teachers before graduating from high school, but only have one or two parents. If the parents learn to say “no” and set the standard for learning, kids will learn—even kids like me, who was so dyslexic when I was six, my mother was told I would never learn to read. Today, I’ve written two award-winning novels and I am this Blog’s host. I’ve also edited and published two books written by other authors.

Return to Education and Cultures Collide in the US (3/5)

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Education and Cultures Collide in the US (3/5)

August 2, 2010

The second school I selected was Richmond High School, in Richmond, California. After you arrive at that Web site, scroll to the Accountability Report halfway and find the Standardized Testing and Reporting Results by Student (ethnic) Group – Most Recent Year

Since the formats for these Accountability Reports are not standard, focus on the English-Language Art Percentage of Students Scoring at Proficient or Advanced where you will see the percentage of those who passed.

Hispanic/Latino 20%
African American 16%
Filipino 41%
White/other 47%
Asian American 40%

Although the numbers are lower than Las Lomas High School, the white, Filipino and Asian Americans have numbers that are twice that of the two remaining ethnic groups.

People who live by the rule of self-esteem and speak and think in politically correct language may find my opinion offensive.

Too bad! The truth hurts and reality often bites fantasies.

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

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Education and Cultures Collide in the US (2/5)

August 2, 2010

The reason that Swan earned those A’s is because my wife is Chinese, who grew up in China during Mao’s era, and I did not grow up in an America dominated by the self-esteem, political correctness cult, which many in the US still worship. To me, learning means work while feeling good and having fun is not important.

The reason for our daughter’s success is that the Chinese value gaining an education above other ethnic groups.

To prove my point, I’m going to use statistical information from two schools.  The first is Las Lomas High School in Walnut Creek, California. Although the law says this data must be made available to the public, it isn’t easy to find unless you know where to look.  Since I taught in California’s public schools for three decades, I know where to find it.

First, you must access the Las Lomas High School “School Facts and Accountability Information, 2008–2009″. Once on this page, scroll down to find the list of high schools in this district. Click on the link for Las Lomas High School. When the Las Lomas page opens, scroll down again and click on “School Accountability Report Card (SARC)”.

Look under Subgroup Test Scores and discover the ethnic/cultural break down that shows the number of students tested and the percentage who were proficient or advanced.

Hispanic/Latino 51% of 92 students
African American  60% of 34
Filipino 71% of 35
White/other 80% of 782
Asian American 84% of 123

The reason why I look at these scores by ethnicity is that each ethnic group is a subculture and has unique differences. The data shows that most Hispanic/Latino values gaining an education less than the others.

These STAR Test Results show comparable stats for proficient or advanced for English Language Arts 2008-2009

Hispanic/Latino 52%
African American 62%
Filipino 69%
White/other 80%
Asian American 84%

For Las Lomas, scroll further, and look at the API Changes by subgroup: Three-Year Comparison and you will discover that the Asians had a gain of +34 for 2008-2009. Why, after all, they had the same teachers in the same school?

Return to Education and Cultures Collide in the US (1/5)

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

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Education and Cultures Collide in the US (1/5)

August 1, 2010

When I finished posting the Chinese Crossbow and other Inventions, I wondered why the Chinese were so successful at coming up with so many innovations while the West had to wait centuries.  To answer that, I thought of a long debate I had with an “old” friend.

He and I had an e-mail debate last year about education in the US until I was sick of hearing his opinion that vouchers would fix the problem. To him, the American public schools were broken. The whole mess was the fault of the Teachers’ Unions and the public schools should be replaced with schools run by the private sector like Wal-Mart.  Imagine Wall-Mart running thousands of schools and being paid from our taxes.

In my opinion, the “old” friend was wrong. America’s schools are not failures. The problem with kids not learning is cultural and socio/economic. To make my point, I’ll use Asian culture as an example.

When I said that Swan, my daughter, had earned straight A’s since kindergarten, this “old” friend said that was a fluke. It was not a fluke.

____________________

Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

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