No, Seriously: Asians are Good at Math

The stereotype that Asians are good at math has probably haunted every Asian reading 8Asians at one time or another. It’s certainly not a new topic, and 8Asians covered this topic in 2008 and twice in 2007. This week the Taiwanese enforced the “Asians are better at math” stereotype when Taiwanese schoolchildren excelled in a U.S. sponsored world math speed contest. In addition Taiwanese excellence in math was a topic this week in this years’ annual ASCD conference, where a paper was presented on “Academic Excellence: Learning from Taiwanese Excellence”.

These two headlines caught my attention since I was born in Taiwan and moved to the U.S. when I was two. Throughout my academic career, I was always known as the math geek. I suppose there was good reason for this, as I did excel in math. I don’t say this to brag, but I did get an 800 on my math PSAT and Math Achievement I (now known as the SAT Subject Tests). I was even on Math Team as co-captain. So I was a perfect fit for the stereotype, and probably the type of math student you hated, as I perpetuated the stereotype you were subject to in school.

But lest you start hating me too soon, I should explain why I was the math geek. My mom, who immigrated to the U.S. and never finished college, made sure math was my life. Before I was the age of five, my mom had drilled the multiplication tables into my head, so that I could recite every permutation up to 12 times 12. If I messed up, I got a slap on the back of the hand with a ruler, so I had plenty of incentive to get it right.

I guess when you get that much of a drilling in math, being a math brain isn’t that hard. Now that I’m an adult and a parent, the tables are turned on me, and I have to make the decision on how much math do I inflict on my daughter, who is fast approaching four. She doesn’t even recognize all the numbers yet, and still stumbles sometimes counting past 10. I tell myself this is okay, as she’s not even four, but something in the back of my mind still nags at me, since I was already past addition and starting on multiplication at the age of four. And there it is again: do you let your child be a child or do you force them into becoming a math brain so they can succeed later?