Changing the Way We Think

Olivia Zhu, 10th Grade
Saratoga CA
The Harker School

There are so many aspects of the world that I wish were different, but I have the strongest personal interest in and connection to fixing the role of education in California and in other parts of the world. Improving the status quo will result in further gains, according to historian Henry Commager’s belief that “Education is essential to change, for education creates both new wants and the ability to satisfy them.” Unfortunately, scholastic spending is likely to continue decreasing due to the current financial crisis, and the Millennium Development Goals regarding worldwide schooling for the underprivileged will not be fulfilled. At a time where some students are denied classrooms, textbooks, and supplies, I feel lucky that my family prioritizes the benefits of education and that I live in a community where the Asian drive for knowledge meshes perfectly with the American appreciation of creativity. Ideally, I would change the mindset of the world to reflect these dual values, hopefully leading to greater rights and respect for everyone.

I first realized the importance of changing current education standards and spending when I began tutoring students from underperforming districts. As smart and as driven as they are, they are sometimes at a disadvantage. A boy named Gustavo told me that he stays at school until late at night to relearn material from his teacher simply because there are too many people in his class for him to receive individual attention. However, after only one hour of tutoring, he understood his lessons perfectly. Though teachers are working overtime without pay and students are doing as best they can, situations such as Gustavo’s persist. Against obstacles such as budget shortfalls, my tutoring does little to mitigate the problem, yet I am grateful for the few hours a week that allow me to help the middle school students and learn about society from them. They make much of their temporary classrooms, separated only by thin corkboard partitions, by covering those walls with cheerful art projects and eloquent essays about their dreams and desires. Gustavo, for example, wants to be a soccer player—but a smart one.

Tutoring is so different from what I experience at my own school, where parents urge their children to study harder, take advantage of all the extracurricular options, and prioritize academics. There, the dreaded Asian grading scale is well known and often cited: an A is just average and a D means disowned. Myths circulate in other schools that we swap “strict parent” stories among ourselves after classes and all of us are mindless, knowledge-absorbing robots. Such stereotypes are, of course, incorrect and exaggerated, but the importance of learning has always been stressed in Asian culture. While academic pressure might be present in some situations, I feel that respect and appreciation of education are what tie all the students of my school together, not whatever bonding we might achieve by telling fictional scary Asian parent stories.

Being Asian-American means I settle contentedly in the middle of two cultures; I am fortunate to experience the individuality and academic freedom that is a cornerstone of American liberty as well as the motivation to learn, understand, and analyze that my parents instilled in me. Having the best aspects of both worlds allowed me to comprehend exactly why education is and will be such a key topic in American and global affairs. The Chinese proverb that states “shí nián shù mù, bâi nián shù rén,” or, just as cryptically, “grow a tree for a ten years, but grow men for a hundred,” truly emphasizes the importance of education—if people are nurtured and taught when young, they will be content and prosperous always. It has been proven that countries with higher standards in schooling will be able to develop a stronger workforce, keep those trained individuals from leaving for other nations, and fortify their economies. There is nothing more worth investment than this cause.

Granted, it may be difficult to begin this switch in attitude toward education, but change has already begun. Officials like Margaret Rhee have reformed Washington D.C. schools, Japanese pediatricians have later office hours based on the schedules of students, and greater attention is being paid to the plight of the California scholastic spending in general. As Commager noted, such transformations of the status quo will only beget more change as individuals are inspired by education to do more. Furthermore, if we nurture these people and communities, they will become self-sufficient. Hopefully they will even grow for more than a hundred years! If everyone embraced the parallel ideals of dedication and distinctiveness, then this ideal future could occur. As a young generation of Asian-Americans who have benefitted from both Western and Eastern traditions, it is our duty to ensure that these very achievable goals are fulfilled.