Each year, the American Chemical Society organizes an International Chemistry
Olympiad. This year is the 44th.
The
Olympiad is an international contest between teams of high school students from
various countries. The American team consists of four members with two team
alternatives. There were also 14 other finalists in the national decision, on
which the American team was chosen.
I was particularly interested in the
names of the various participants, with respect to their national origin as
Americans.
Only one of the four team members as an English name. The
other three names are Asian.
Both alternative team members have Asian
names.
All 14 of the other finalists have Asian names.
This
country was founded by the English, with subsequent immigration from Europe in
the late 1800s. The Civil War freed the slaves, which gave them 150 years to
develop educationally. Asian immigration also started to erupt about 1860 and
continues to the present day. Hispanic immigration has been on a par with
Asians, but has started to decrease.
I wonder why we have such a
preponderance of Asians in the American portion of the Olympiad. What happened
to the Europeans, Blacks and Hispanics? Are they less capable in chemistry than Asians, or has
the government done something to screw up the natural distribution?
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Back when I was in school, I took a course entitled The Sociology of Education. Throughout this course we noticed that the Asians had higher IQ scores than the other races. We also noticed that the blacks generally had the lowest IQ scores. These scores were unaffected by standard of living, education level of parents, health and nutrition, or any other factors we could discover. This propensity for Asians to be able to score higher on tests was demonstrated in Sarah's first grade class. When she was in first grade, in New Jersey, she and one of the kids from the Laotian family, which we had sponsored from the refugee camps in Thailand, scored light years above all of the other kids in the class on standardized tests. My assumption was that the average Asian kid is wired to read.
ReplyDeleteIn my teaching experience of these past 10 years, I have noticed that the American kids may be smart, and some of them are hard workers, but they can't hold a candle to the Russian kids whose grandfather was Chinese. They read at lightning speed, almost from the beginning of their schooling, and certainly by first or second grade.
Karen
The question then becomes, if the Asians are intrinsically smarter, why haven't they been responsible for most of the scientific, technological, economic , etc. breakthroughs throughout history? I believe the answer is because they have been inhibited by their political systems, which have thwarted individual achievement and accomplishment. It is sad that our nation, which has heretofore encouraged individuals to reach their potential, seems to be going in the opposite direction.
ReplyDeleteDick