Oriental Express: One secret to stepped-up scores

From Chinese tradition we get Bruce Lee – but also affordable and effective extra schooling

By Dad

It may be New York’s best-kept secret (outside the Chinese-American community).

For years, I’ve been trying to find an affordable formula for getting the kids on a path to the best schools and a top-flight college.

My own tutoring attempts proved an age-old maxim; kids don’t listen to their parents.

As I canvassed for a solution, a couple of Chinese-American parents I know introduced me to the world of supplemental education in New York’s Chinatown.

It’s a mystery to most parents outside the Chinese-American community because many of the schools, if they advertise at all, do so only in the Chinese-language press.

Having now put the girls through Chinatown schools over the summer, I’m ready to declare “Eureka!” (or whatever the Chinese equivalent is). I've found the pocket-book friendly secret to stepped-up test scores.

Dora (13) is well on her way to achieving her goal of passing a crucial citywide examination this October to get into a New York “specialized” high school. She has her eyes on one that boasts eight Nobel-prize alumni (that’s more than many countries can claim).

Penny (10) has started fifth grade of regular school with heightened confidence. She now has the discipline to finish her homework on the early side of Letterman's Late Show.

Cathy (6) is picking out one chapter book after another to read after her first grade public school teacher last year dubbed her reading-skills as deficient (actually, she said they were "developing," because no one is ever "behind" in the politically correct public school system).

This, all for minimal cost compared to what I saw of private school tariffs outside Chinatown – or to one-on-one tutoring.

Brutal

But there is a catch – in the shock your kids undergo if they’re not used to being driven hard.

Boy, do those Chinatown schools set a pace! Make no mistake, they live up to the cultural reputation Amy Chua emphatically spelled out in her 2011 book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.

Do's and don'ts posted in one classroom 

While the teachers don’t scream at the kids like Amy said she did with her daughters, the classroom rules are brutal.

“No shaking legs,” warns one of the more bizarre exhortations listed on a form issued at Dora's school.

"No ostentatious greeting" is another – so think how out-of-place the over-the-top Disney Channel stars would be at a school like this.

Being an eager student will get you nowhere either: "Calling out the answer (is) not permitted," the form says.

Just a minute's tardiness will get a student an hour's banishment to the reception area.

But the punishments for most other infractions have not even reached the maturity of the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi (circa 1772 BC).

The code was among the first to state what would happen to you if you broke the law. Compare that to what the form at Dora's schools says:

"The school reserves the right to take any disciplinary action on your violation of the above-described rules" (my italics).

You're at the mercy of the principal – a perfectly nice guy (who just happened to brought up in China during the Cultural Revolution, when nonconformists figured they'd got off lightly if they were condemned to hard labor).

And, like during the Cultural Revolution, some infractions are not even posted, but carry harsh punishments. The school suspended one student for a day because he’d tossed a piece of crumpled paper into the garbage can, instead of walking over at break time and placing it inside.

Finally, there’s also this less-than-subtle admission that the school is driving the kids hard: “During break time, students can sleep with their head on the desk.”

“It’s so hard” Penny balled about the workload at the school she and Cathy attended.

Achievement

All of which brings me again to the pace: all three girls did more in a day than I recall their doing in a week at public school last year.

Penny survived and has even recovered, writing in a short composition during her first week of regular fifth grade: “I know it was for the best and I am better for it.”

Cathy actually thrived throughout her Chinatown experience, and now playfully recreates the setting at home as a backdrop to extra regular school studies I have her doing. (Remember, she’s only six, so starting them young seems to be key, and no doubt explains why she acclimatized so readily to the Chinatown school pace.)

"We made it" the main Chinese script reads in the center

Dora is still attending her Chinatown school to complete a course that takes her to the October specialized high school admissions test.

Her pride in her consistently high scores in biweekly tests stands in stark contrast to her attitude before we signed up for the school.

“Why are you acting like a Chinese parent?” she had barked in reaction to my efforts to push her back then.

Quite ironic, given where she ended up, and how she ultimately submitted to Chinatown rules.

Many parents outside the Chinese community believe there is some cultural secret to the fact that, statistically, well over half of the students enrolled in New York’s eight specialized high schools that require a test for admissions are Asian (click here for a New York Times report on this).

Our experience shows that there's nothing particularly cultural about it. We didn’t adopt oriental traditions. We just followed a rigorous program. The secret is nothing more than hard work.


Update: In March, 2014, Dora received word she had been offered a place in Stuyvesant High School, the most sought after of the Specialized High Schools in New York. She starts in September, 2014. This is the toughest school to enter. More than 70% of its students are Asian.