Are Australian Children Becoming Poor White Trash?

[icyfroth]

POOR kids with English-speaking parents are being left behind at school as Asian students surge ahead, former Labor leader Mark Latham argues in a controversial new article.

That makes a decades-old slur by a foreign leader that Australians will be the "poor, white trash of Asia" even more relevant today, the ex-Labor leader writes in this month's Quarterly Essay.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/parenting/are-aussie-kids-becoming-poor-white-trash/story-fnet08ui-...

Education researcher Kevin Donnelly says children with Asian backgrounds tend to do better in Year 12 results and in selective school tests.

"There is this Confucian ethic in terms of education which is very much about respecting authority, a willingness to work hard and focus and concentrate," Dr Donnelly told news.com.au.

Jane Caro, author of What Makes A Good School, says the issue with modern parenting is that many parents have a problem with teachers imposing discipline. "The workforce is walking away from those kids in droves," she said.

I often feel that our kids go to school socially, or to be baby-sat, rather than academically.

[crystal**flake]

Out of curiosity, what ya kids get for their ATAR Flake?

They didn't go for one, my son went to a private college to get a degree and my daughter went to tech, they both knew uni wasn't for them, actually my son will get a better education going private.

[the_bob_delusion]

They didn't go for one, my son went to a private college to get a degree and my daughter went to tech, they both knew uni wasn't for them, actually my son will get a better education going private.

I don't get your son. You DO need to go to uni to get a degree. 

Did they not even finish year 12?

[crystal**flake]

Of course they finished year 12 and no you dont HAVE to go through uni to get a  degree.

[the_bob_delusion]

I thought you automatically get an ENTER/ATAR score just for finishing year 12

[crystal**flake]

No, well not 2 years ago.

[donnashuggy]

Many students finishing year 12 don't.

[i-need-a-martini]

Yes they have it instilled in them from early childhood to strive for excellence, Deb.

Yes but at what cost?

When I was teaching at uni, I would estimate that 80% of asian kids who had the top marks in their HSC scraped through uni with passes. In the 4 years that I taught, nearly 100% of the kids that we gave a fail mark to were asian. They all just floundered when they had to think for themselves after years of being tutored to pass exams through their high school years.

I recently employed a lovely young asian graduate at work. She was born here to parents who came out from China to study in Australia. Both her parents are now doctors. She talks about being told by her parents from kindergarden that she would be an architect (her brother will be a doctor) and everything they did was with that one aim in mind. She wasn't allowed phones, computers, outing with friends until she finished her HSC. She talks about being woken up at 5am to to homework because she couldn't do it after school because she had tutoring every day. She hates her career but says she has no choice.

What sort of a life is that?

[donnashuggy]

An aussiie may tell their parents to "get stuffed" is probably the difference of life .

[crystal**flake]

An aussiie may tell their parents to "get stuffed" is probably the difference of life .

Omg mine wouldn've wanted to have.

[donnashuggy]

It all depends on the child, it is not the Australian way to push and tutor.......

A lot of it is down to luck, our children love history because we speak about it and therefore create interest and they have loved it.

Same goes with music and art,