There are many things the Chinese do differently from Westerners. Theres the question of extra credit, for example. One time, Lulu came home and told me about a math test shed just taken. She said she thought it had gone extremely well, which is why she didnt feel the need to do the extra-credit problems.I was speechless for a second, uncomprehending. Why not? I asked. Why didnt you do them?I didnt want to miss recess.A fundamental tenet of being Chinese is that you always do all of the extra credit all of the time.Why? asked Lulu, when I explained this to her.For me this was like asking why I should breathe.None of my friends do it, Lulu added.Thats not true, I said. Im 100% sure that Amy and Junno did the extra credit. Amy and Junno were the Asian kids in Lulus class. And I was right about them; Lulu admitted it.But Rashad and Ian did the extra credit too, and theyre not Asian, she added.Aha! So many of your friends did do the extra credit! And I didnt say only Asians do extra credit. Anyone with good parents knows you have to do the extra credit. Im in shock, Lulu. What will the teacher think of you? You went to recess instead of doing extra credit? I was almost in tears. Extra credit is not extra. Its just credit. Its what separates the good students from the bad students.""Aww - recess is so fun," Lulu offered as her final sally. But after that, Lulu, like Sophia. always did the extra credit. Sometimes the girls got more points on extra credit than on the test itself - an absurdity that would never happen in China. Extra credit is one reason that Asian kids get such notoriously good grades in the United States.Rote drilling is another. Once Sophia came in second on a multiplication speed test, which her fifth grade teacher administered every Friday. She lost to a Korean boy named Yoon-seok. Over the next week, I made Sophia do twenty practice tests (of 100 problems each) every night, with me clocking her with a stopwatch. After that, she came in first every time. Poor Yoon-seok. He went back to Korea with his family, but probably not because of the speed test.
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About Amy Chua
Amy Chua was a contemporary American law professor and writer. Amy Lynn Chua is an American legal scholar, corporate lawyer, and writer. She is the John M. Read more on Wikipedia →