Asian American Education Reflection

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Recommended: Diversity in the classroom is not limited to abilities

Thinking about school and grades again has also reminded me of my mother. I got back my biology exam yesterday and got a 90 on it. I was so happy because of the fact that the class was really difficult and there were lots of terms to memorize. More importantly, I thought my mom would commend me for studying hard and getting a good grade on this exam. Instead, she asked me why I didn’t get a perfect score on the exam. Her reasoning? I am Asian and Asians are supposed to be good at science and math, which is what many of her friends told her. Seriously?! Not all Asians are good at science or math, and I often hear that Asian students are struggling to pass my teacher’s biology exams. Although I know what my mother is saying is inaccurate and way too generalized, it …show more content…

I still remembered the shocked face of my friend when I told her I got a 3.4 GPA for the first semester of college. Even though I was satisfied with my grades because I though it was good enough for my first semester in college, my friend was shocked when she found out that she had a higher GPA than me. To her, I should be getting high grades because I am an Asian American and that’s the general concept about Asian students. Although I felt motivated to work harder to get better grades when I first heard of it, I later felt so stressed to meet the “Asian standard” as I heard it again and again from different people, including my friends, my parents, and relatives. Their thoughts were all affected by the “general concept” about Asian American students and that we have to be successful in school. If we weren’t, we couldn’t possibly be Asian. I don’t understand why our performances are connected to our racial identities, as I can still be an Asian American who did poorly in college. Thinking about it still stresses me out because I want to be seen as part of the Asian American community, but I hate the conditions that come with

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