Excited
Recently John posted about Raymond Zheng, a precocious 14 year old college freshman. Although I know nothing about Raymond beyond the video that John sent out, I’d like to use him as a starting point to explore a topic that I find fascinating: education philosophy, or in plainer terms, how to raise your kid.
Now, I should start by disclosing that I do not have any children of my own, as I’m 24 and spend my weekends drinking aggressively with my friends. That said, I feel that I’ve experienced enough of life to have a rough idea of what skills and values lead to success, which means that I have an opinion on how to educate a child to instill those things.
I disagree with what I will term as the ‘Raymond Zheng’ approach to education for two reasons: first, it seems to poorly provide for the types of interpersonal skills that are critical for success. Schools are about more than transferring academic knowledge; they are communities where people bond, form relationships, and go through the process of maturing into adulthood together. This program misses that by thrusting these kids into impersonal lecture halls with students who they can’t possibly relate to in any meaningful way. It’s telling that when the reporter asked Raymond to explain his computer program, Raymond gave the wrong answer. Not wrong in a technical sense, but wrong in that it failed to take into account the reporter’s level of understanding of the subject and was thus useless. It lacked a level of human understanding that you can’t learn by taking more advanced classes but which comes naturally to anyone who has spent time meeting people and making friends.
Similarly, the girl who dismissed going to prom completely missed the point; yes, she can still go with her friends (although I question how close she can remain with her friends given that she won’t see them in school anymore and is going through a completely different set of experiences as they are). But prom is a communal ritual, and she is no longer part of that community. It is a step towards adulthood — it’s no accident that so many high schoolers choose to lose their virginity at prom — that has a certain collective emotional resonance that she will likely miss out on.
Kids who grow up going through the normal education system are getting a lot more out of it than just an academic education. By being constantly surrounded with other people who are their same age and going through the same maturation process as them, and going through communal school events like prom, they are developing the ability to interact with other human beings. This is critical to success, not only because most careers involve a high amount of collaborative work, but more importantly because being a content, well adjust human being requires forming good relationships with other people. When I said earlier that I have a rough idea of what skills lead to life success, one of the things I meant is that I have never met a single person who is happy but does not have a lot of friends.
The Raymond Zheng approach also emphasizes the knowledge acquisition over creativity, when in most real life settings (at least the settings a high powered achiever like Ray is likely to get involved in) the latter is far more important. Creativity is a nebulous subject, but everything I’ve witnessed, read about, or experienced first hand suggests that it starts with play (there is an excellent book on improvisational acting called Impro that goes into this subject in more depth.) Watching Raymond, you don’t get the sense that he plays very much, which makes me wonder how he’ll do once he’s gotten through all the academic knowledge that he’s learning and moves on to the real goal of adding to knowledge and creating something new.
Raymond seems like a nice kid, and for all I know I might have the specifics of his story wrong. But I do want to call attention to and indict a way of thinking that is prevalent within Asian and Asian American communities — the exclusive emphasis on academic performance creates real problems and prevents children from growing up into successful, well adjusted human beings.
How does this post make you feel?
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Rob: thought provoking post! Thanks. I agree and disagree on parts of it.
I disagree that Raymond Zheng is necessarily friendless and lacks creativity. We don't know enough about him to really say. In some ways, for him to go to college is like being home schooled - just because kids like him aren't around their age peers all day in school, it doesn't mean that they are necessarily maladjusted, just like you can't say that all home schooled kids are going to be maladjusted. Also, I don't think you can say that he is or is not creative. He treats computer programming as recreational play - and I'd have to say that programming can be play (I am revealing my own geek nature). Moreover, having him in a regular school and being painfully bored is dangerous also - boredom can get kids in trouble. Yan had some comments about some of those kids - they seem to reasonably adjusted, according to her.
I do agree with your assertion that an exclusive emphasis on mere knowledge acquisition that many Asian and Asian-Americans focus on is not healthy. I'd have to say that now, it is often a check list mentality, that includes activities that the parents think kids need to get into college as parents realize that kids can't just do it all on grades (I talk about this in my recent basketball post). Get the high grades, do some sports, some other activities, etc., and the kid is going to Harvard. Passion, morals, or creativity not needed. Terrible way to think - especially since the more selective schools do look for passion.
Rob: thought provoking post! Thanks. I agree and disagree on parts of it.
I disagree that Raymond Zheng is necessarily friendless and lacks creativity. We don't know enough about him to really say. In some ways, for him to go to college is like being home schooled - just because kids like him aren't around their age peers all day in school, it doesn't mean that they are necessarily maladjusted, just like you can't say that all home schooled kids are going to be maladjusted. Also, I don't think you can say that he is or is not creative. He treats computer programming as recreational play - and I'd have to say that programming can be play (I am revealing my own geek nature). Moreover, having him in a regular school and being painfully bored is dangerous also - boredom can get kids in trouble. Yan had some comments about some of those kids - they seem to reasonably adjusted, according to her.
I do agree with your assertion that an exclusive emphasis on mere knowledge acquisition that many Asian and Asian-Americans focus on is not healthy. I'd have to say that now, it is often a check list mentality, that includes activities that the parents think kids need to get into college as parents realize that kids can't just do it all on grades (I talk about this in my recent basketball post). Get the high grades, do some sports, some other activities, etc., and the kid is going to Harvard. Passion, morals, or creativity not needed. Terrible way to think - especially since the more selective schools do look for passion.
Rob, not everyone in this world is the same personality-wise or intellectual-wise. People are different. Some are introverts, some are extroverts and some are in-between. You sound somewhat extroverted. Sometimes we have difficulty understanding other people because we ascribe our point of view to theirs. What we must realize is that other people can and do have different personalities and behaviors from ourselves. We learn in different ways so it is wrong to assume that there is a "proper" way to learn.
Rob, not everyone in this world is the same personality-wise or intellectual-wise. People are different. Some are introverts, some are extroverts and some are in-between. You sound somewhat extroverted. Sometimes we have difficulty understanding other people because we ascribe our point of view to theirs. What we must realize is that other people can and do have different personalities and behaviors from ourselves. We learn in different ways so it is wrong to assume that there is a "proper" way to learn.
/like.
I knew a kid who went to a pretty prestigious college at the age of 16 or so. skipping out a couple of grades in elementary school. Even then, you can kind of draw the comparisons between students who are 14, 16, or 18 and their respective social and creative development. IMO skipping grades will, save for a handful of rare cases, most likely be more detrimental than helpful to the overall development of an individual.
/like.
I knew a kid who went to a pretty prestigious college at the age of 16 or so. skipping out a couple of grades in elementary school. Even then, you can kind of draw the comparisons between students who are 14, 16, or 18 and their respective social and creative development. IMO skipping grades will, save for a handful of rare cases, most likely be more detrimental than helpful to the overall development of an individual.
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