Asian Group

People higher up than I ever was in academia told me some time back that many Indian parents are pushing their kids to excel in school in much the same way that East Asian parents have long done -- sometimes harshly, sometimes counterproductively, but they let their kids know school is not primarily for socializing but for learning. They are expected to do well in class, and failure to do so costs them their parents' respect (and maybe even their love). So maybe they get higher grades, get admitted to better grad schools and med schools, and that gets called "disproportionate" because white students in the same classes didn't bother to take their studies as seriously, but just drifted through a prolonged adolescent stage in which their parents effectively left them with the "baby-sitter" ?

I grew up in the South, and I have plenty of acquaintances and even relatives whose memories of college are mostly about football games and pep rallies. And I've taught plenty of students who seem to think that their instructors are supposed to give them passing grades -- even good grades -- no matter how poorly they do. Any person -- or group of people -- who sets higher standards than that for themselves is going to be "disproportionately" represented.

A publication like Wired should know better than to publish such remarks without qualification and explication.