Comment by dartharva
21 days ago
That difference in Asian societies as against Western ones doesn't come from "higher standards" or whatever; it comes from a much more mundane reason: not doing good in school here literally has immediate far-reaching consequences because everything is scarce and up for brutal competition.
In the West kids can randomly decide to drop entire years after high school, or even skip college altogether - because it's (apparently) easy to not be immediately destitute without a good job. In India and China children grow up witnessing how much of a divide that makes, and how thin the line seperating their fates from "respectable" to brutal poverty is. No kid growing in such an environment will take school lightly.
I wonder if, as inequality increases and the social safety net disappears in the USA, this will change. My parents told me “do what you love, as long as you work hard you’ll succeed and be fine.” I did what I loved (the arts), worked my ass off and succeeded, and wasn’t fine. Thank god I learned to code in the 20-teens, when competition was lower.
I most certainly will transmitting a different set of values to my kids. Not going to go full straight A’s psychopath because I’ve seen what that’s done to some peers, but unless I win the lottery my kids will not be being told to just “do what they love” (unless they happen to love applied math lol)