It has been said that playing an instrument as a child is the greatest predictor of concert attendance as an adult. I can relate because I started taking piano lessons when I was eight and I continued learning for 10 years. I took piano exams through the Associated Board of The Royal Schools of Music almost every year and I was one exam away from obtaining my Diploma in Instrumental Teaching. I also performed in many recitals as a kid. Unlike many Asian kids who were forced to learn an instrument, I actually suggested to my parents I wanted to learn how to play the piano. To be honest, playing the piano was fun at first, but it got to the point where it felt like I was only learning to pass the exams and not for enjoyment. Nowadays, I still listen to Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, etc. and occasionally attend orchestral concerts.

It is a little ironic how many Asian parents force their children to learn an instrument as a child but not let them pursue music as a career. Learning an instrument is just another extracurricular activity to make one stand out from one’s classmates when it is time to apply for college. In many Asian countries, being competent in an instrument is a marker for success. Amy Chua’s Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mom, talks about her threatening her daughter during piano practice: “If the next time’s not perfect, I’m going to take all your stuffed animals and burn them!”

Although most Asian Americans do not choose music as their career, many top orchestras today such as the New York Philharmonic are made up of 20% of Asian Americans. Even though more and more Asian Americans are deciding to pursue a career in music and even learning an instrument, the financial state of orchestras is declining. In 2008, less than 10% of adults in the United States said they attended an orchestra. Every year, orchestras are praying that at least some people will still continue to go to orchestra symphonies. Even though ticket sales are dropping, there is one group that still likes classical music and even pay to go to orchestras—Asians. In Asian countries such as China, Korea, and Japan, classical music is still an aspirational totem. It is kind of funny how traditional Western music is most kept alive in Eastern countries today. The only people left keeping classical music alive are Asian Americans and older adults. Eventually if classical music does die off in Western countries, it might be still be kept alive in parts of Asia.

[Photo Credit: renochamberochestra.org]

After hearing so many wonderful things about him, and listening to his albums, I felt I had a great opportunity to interview him:

Who are your musical influences for your work?

Certainly my parents (both parents). My dad used to practice with my brother and I every single day when we started out on the violin. This built a solid foundation to build on. Some of my other influences would be Gordon Stout (Marimba), Leigh Howard Stevens (Marimba), Vladimir Horowitz (Piano) and Itzhak Perlman (Violin) for performance. Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, Walter Mays and Igor Stravinsky for composition.

What was the first instrument you learned and when?

Violin from age 4 (1978ish) to age 12.

Did you ever have any desire to to pursue the stereotypical Asian/Korean occupation of engineering/medicine?

No, even though there are many doctors on my mother’s side. Grandfather, uncle and my brother are all MD’s. I don’t think I ever had the brains for those fields.

What are you favorite bands and musicians?

See list of performers above for soloists. Also, James Brown, “the hardest working man in show business!” My favorite bands are “Squirrel Nut Zippers” and “The Doors.”

Did you face any struggles or barriers as you pursued this field?

Plenty, it took me four years and 30 rejection letters to finally land a job! I freelanced in Wichita, KS for four years and took adjunct jobs at schools that were literally five hours from my home. Lots of driving!!!

Any advice for future musicians?

Practice very hard while you are a student. Once real life starts, there is no more time and every one who did practice relentless hours as students will be so far ahead of you in skill that you will likely never catch up. Also, take every gig seriously. You never know who is listening. My first CD was a result of a gentleman hearing me play marimba in a bar in Wichita, KS. Also, do what you can to stay in the business after your education. You may not land your dream job right away, but there are ways that you can find to make a living as a musician, you just have to a be little inventive at times.

More information can be found on his Indiana University faculty page.

Nineteen years ago, my parents decided to move our entire family to the suburbs. As it turns out, we weren’t the only ones. A recent Washington Post article highlights the national trend of APAs moving away from urban Chinatowns and into suburban communities.

Standardized testing was pretty much invented by the Chinese. As an American of Taiwanese and Chinese heritage, this means that standardized testing is part of my ethnic and ancestral heritage. The fact that Asian Americans tend to score better than everyone else on standardized tests is not news to anyone. I mean, after 5,000 years of test prep culture (there’s even a god of testing), it’s not really a surprise right?

But what are the consequences of all this standardized testing? After a lifetime of school here in the United States spanning from pre-school to my Ph.D. in Education (20 years of school), as well as 14 years as a professional educator in both public school and private settings, I’ve given this a lot of thought. I’ve come to the conclusion that standardized tests, a vestige of ancient China, stunt the intellectual growth of not just Asian American students but of all students.

Let me explain.

There’s a lot of controversy over the use of standardized tests to measure school, teacher, and student progress (let’s not forget parents and communities, too), especially when those test scores are used to make teachers and schools “accountable” for their performance. Basically, we use standardized tests as a sort of thermometer for educational quality.

I think the best way to judge the effectiveness of standardized tests as a measure of educational quality is to analyze it against our ideals and goals for what makes a quality and successful education.

The Goal of Education

Using an American value system, one that I personally believe in, a quality education should produce knowledgeable and analytical thinkers that become compassionate, just, and thoughtful decision-makers for our country. Everyone gets to vote and for the welfare and continued strength of our country and homeland, we want everyone who votes to be a quality voter, capable of not only living a life of intelligent and caring self-determination but also capable of being a quality contributor to the great experiment that is American democracy.

How Standardized Tests Discourage People Away from this Goal

What is the definition of “standardized”? In short, the same for everyone everywhere. That means there is one right answer or at least a set of right answers for every question or problem presented. When a student sits down to take one of these tests, that child either picks the right answer or the wrong answer. End of discussion. No appeals or rebuttals allowed.

Simply and harshly put, standardized tests are the intellectual equivalent of tyranny. There is no encouragement of the student to think for themselves. Instead, they are basically coerced to give the expected answer, the accepted answer and nothing else. Do otherwise, and the child is punished with shame and lower level class assignments, sometimes worse.

I don’t need to go into detail of how this is not even in the same universe let alone ballpark of the goal for education stated above.

Bottom line: standardized tests do not encourage the intellectual critical thinking needed to deal with the complex and dynamic realities of our world and society nor do they encourage compassion and care for our fellow humans. Not only does it fail in helping us measure and provide quality education for our next generation of citizens, it horrifyingly does the exact opposite—promoting the sort of despotic mentality that goes against the very grain of American liberty.

That is not just UNACCEPTABLE, it is UNETHICAL.

However, I do hate it when people complain about a problem and provide no suggestion of a solution, so let me also elaborate on what I strongly believe is a doable alternative to the current standardized testing situation.

The Real Demon Behind Standardized Tests

Demonizing standardized tests is like blaming the gun for the murder. A standardized test is simply a human constructed tool meant to measure the educational attainment of students. It is created based on rigorous statistical standards and norms accepted among top experts and researchers in the fields of psychological and educational measurement. And any of those experts will tell you that the tool is LIMITED. The tool is not perfect and is subject to the biases and assumptions of its creators and all the uncontrollable variables that come with being human.

The problem is not the tool—it is the way we use it.

Standardized tests are not completely useless. As a very experienced teacher (the students I’ve taught number in the thousands now), I see the standardized tests as a helpful little added piece of information about students. If they score really low on a standardized measurement of their reading comprehension, it alerts me as a teacher to check in on that aspect of their learning. However, it DOES NOT tell me that their reading comprehension is necessarily bad, BECAUSE I know that the standardized measurement is extremely limited and can only give me a BLURRY SNAPSHOT of a student’s actually comprehension skills. It’s like the Heisenburg Uncertainty Principle; there’s an inherent inaccuracy in its measurement of reality. Generally, when a kid scores below average or average or above average, it’s pretty much a good ESTIMATE of the general ability of a child. However, too often I’ve worked with students who score below average on reading comprehension but can share an insightful observation about a character’s development after reading an advanced classics book. They didn’t get to demonstrate that on the standardized test because it probably wasn’t one of the multiple-choice answer options. Further, kids can have bad days, test questions can have a bias towards middle class White American culture, and these standardized tests were never meant to tell us accurate information about individual students in the first place. It’s more useful as a measurement of general population of students than an accurate measurement of an individual student. It’s like trying to pinpoint a dust particle in a snowstorm.

Now, imagine kids, students, parents, principals, and school districts being held “accountable” for the test scores of their students. Wait, on second thought, don’t imagine. Let me tell you what happens. Since “accountability” hangs on the outcome of test scores, all positive reinforcement in terms of praise, recognition, grades, prestige and even lollipops and a smile are suddenly tied into motivating kids to get the best score possible on these standardized tests. Learn the RIGHT answer dictated by some unseen test maker, not the most thoughtfully constructed one that takes into consideration all the nuances of a dynamic reality and comes about from in-depth research, inquiry, and dialogue.

After a long academic year of learning all the right answers for a test, the kids get to top it all off with TWO WEEKS of continuous testing. That’s two weeks of NO LEARNING, JUST TESTING. Two weeks of teachers parroting from exactly scripted directions that must be read precisely the way it is on the paper, which means two weeks of NO INSTRUCTION. When I was a brand new teacher, I thought, “Wow, getting paid to sit here and administer this test is like the easiest and most brainless part of the school year.” You don’t get more dumbed down than that.

Luckily the reality is not as bleak as this (although some would argue otherwise), as there are excellent teachers that actually do provide a lot of quality instruction to students to learn complex concepts and skills, even despite the pressures, but can you see the amount of wasted time and energy that has been diverted from real learning because everything hangs on the standardized test results? And what about the not-so-excellent teachers? They could easily drill kids on simplistic standardized test-prep-only activities and be fully justified in doing so because the test score is the measure of quality education.

Okay, so I hope I have made it as clear as possible that the real demon behind standardized testing is our misuse of this tool and misinterpretation of the data it produces.

So what now? We can’t very well just have no accountability for our educational system. There are very real BAD teachers, and with the pay offered, it doesn’t exactly attract the best and the brightest. There are a lot of intellectually mediocre individuals working with our children every minute of every day. What can our educational system look like without standardized tests to whip everyone into shape?

False Products vs. True Products

There are a lot of answers to this problem, but let me present one rather simple one that I think can at least get us thinking in the right direction. I propose that we move towards an educational system that encourages students to produce true products instead of false products. False products are grades and test scores, extremely abstract, sterile, and inhumane representations of the real human child. True products are the sort of products that we expect from professionals. Instead of memorizing history facts for the test, students should be engaging in historical research and local history documentation. Instead of flash cards for science facts, they should be studying the ecosystems in their own backyards. Instead of writing for a state writing assessment, they should be writing books and news articles and publishing their work. Basically, all students should have the education reserved for only the most wealthy, gifted and privileged of our population. Given the opportunity to help guide students in their production of true products, teachers will be able to practice and train to become true master guides to their apprentices and not just parroting fools of pre-scripted tests.

At first glance, this sounds like an easier system, as if we’d be raising a generation of coddled babies who don’t know how to take the blow of a red “F” bleeding across the top of their paper. But let me assure you, this will be a HARDER system on all fronts. First of all, anyone who has put themselves out there as a writer will tell you that readers are harsh critics, especially young readers. And it’s not exactly easy defending your historical or scientific finds against the scrutiny and judgments of others.

The real world will be harsh enough on the true products of students. We don’t need to create fake harshness in the form of arbitrary grading systems and sterilized test scores. Our job should be to support the next generation as they learn how to deal with the real world first hand.

For Asian Pacific Americans and our model minority shackles, I feel the dangers of the standardized mind are doubly perilous. 5,000 years is a lot of baggage to carry, so let’s make sure that it becomes part of our experience and not part of our burden.

(Disclaimer: I totally took that last line from Jet Li’s Tai Chi Master movie.)

From the Board organizing the event:

The Asian American Studies Program at the University of Pennsylvania would like to invite you to submit your original work to Faces of Asian America: The First Undergraduate Research Forum on Asian American Studies on March 17, 2012. The Research Forum explores the issues surrounding the Asian American experience with the goal of promoting a more profound understanding of Asian America. Faces of Asian America welcomes research from all disciplines including but not limited to History, Literature, Sociology, and Cinema. All students are invited to enter their work such as papers from current or past academic courses or independent study. All submitted research will be reviewed by a panel, and twelve outstanding papers will be selected to participate at the Forum.

If you are interested in attending, please RSVP here. If you are also interested in submitting your work, please send it to upennasam[at]gmail.com. Submissions are due February 3, 2012. For questions or concerns, please email Susan Hirai at hirai[at]sas.upenn.edu.

People born in the year of the dragon are said to be destined for wealth and success. Notable dragons include Bruce Lee, Deng Xiaoping, and Maggie Cheung. Some places in Asia are expecting and even wanting a baby boom during the year of the dragon. But does being born in the year of the dragon really give you an advantage? A study done at George Mason University attempted to find out. I was born in the year of the dragon, and I’d really wanted to read this study to see whether I am destined for great things.

What did the study find?  George Mason University economics professors Noel D. Johnson and John V.C. Nye found that for some, there is an advantage! Asian American babies born in the 1976 year of the dragon have on average .34 more years of education than other Asian non-dragon babies. What is the cause of this difference?  The study concludes the parents are the cause. Says Professor Nye:

“Belief in the superiority of dragon-year children is self-fulfilling.  The demographic characteristics associated with parents who are more willing and able to adjust their birthing strategies are correlated with greater investment in their children.”

This can be seen as they found that immigrant Asian babies have as much as a half a year education advantage while in the general U.S. population, no advantage is seen by those born in the year of the dragon. My parents don’t pay attention to the Chinese Zodiac and thus were unlikely to have adjusted birthing strategies to accommodate the year. Oh well. I would have liked to have had a magical advantage in life!

Bonnie Tsui’s book The Changing Face of America’s Chinatowns is an analysis of the dynamics of Chinatown’s shifting population of immigrants of various Asian heritage origins, including the ones who are economically enticed to go back to their heritage countries. This book was covered on NPR. In the audio of Chinatown recorded in the NPR covereage, I even heard some Taiwanese/Fujianese spoken, and the book’s topic of study made me reflect on the role of Chinatown in my own life experience and if they are indeed disappearing as Tsui says they are.

When my Taiwanese family first came to the U.S. in the early 1980s, we lived in a little apartment in Los Angeles’ historic Chinatown for a few months before moving out the the “Chinatown” suburbs of Monterey Park and Alhambra areas. After a few more years in one of LA’s oldest towns, Whittier, where my family alone made up practically the entire Asian American population in the area, we moved to yet another Asian suburbia, the Hacienda-Rowland-Diamond-Walnut-Chino corridor where you can find Asian food from practically every corner of Asia within a 15 minute drive and quite a number of public schools there are 30% to 60% or more students of Asian heritage. Although I didn’t grow up in the urban Chinatowns, I most definitely grew up in various evolving forms of Chinatown, communities where you practically cannot survive socially or professionally without knowing how to speak Chinese (and a variety of Asian languages and dialects along with some Spanish).

When Tsui reports that some of the Chinatowns are struggling to even survive, it’s hard for me to believe. Since the urban Chinatowns are indeed what she calls revolving doors, and most people don’t usually stay there permanently and primarily use it as a gateway to America, I can see how that’s true there. But the largely suburban Chinatowns seem to be here to stay, at least for a another half century. In my own experience, it feels like that community is really here to stay. Nevertheless, I wonder if that’s just my wishful thinking, and maybe future economic, social, and political situations may entice people to engage in a sort of reverse immigration. What do you think?

[Photo courtesy of here.]