H.S. Academic All-Stars - No Smiths or Jones'

[Kiwon]

2007 All-USA High School Academic All-Stars

First Team: Thilini Ariyawansa, Megan Blewett, Kenneth Brewer,
Johnny Hu, Meredith MacGregor, Priyanka Mitra, Scott Molony,
Patrick Lee, Amelia Lin, Heidi Liu, Veronica Shi, Carol Suh, Lova Sun,
Arnav Tripathy, Jason Vartikar-McCullough, Vidya Viswanathan, Joanne Wang, Geoffrey Woo, Wesley Yu, Felix Zhang.

Second Team: Sarah Bayefsky-Anand, Yi Cai, Michael Ding,
Zachary Frankel, Jeremy Hsu, Huang "Maria" Huang, Daniel Lage,
Rose Liu, Monica Lu, Alexa Lutchen, Gabriel Mendoza, Beatrice Parker,
Anita Rao, Nathaniel Thomas, Jennifer Tiskus, Esther Uduehi, Nwamaka Uzoh, Dmitry Vaintrob, Rui Wang, Yin Wu.

Third Team: Gregory Brockman, Arhana Chattopadhyay, Matthew Conti, Zuzana Culakova, Marshall Everett, Amardeep Grewal, Congcong Guo, Nimit Jain, Brienne Kugler, Ethan Kuperberg, Kelsey Lau, Kevin Leu,
Allen Lin, Tina Liu, Soumya Nettimi, Karis Tang-Quan, David Tao,
Hannah Watkins, Christine Yu, Lillian Yu.
.................................................. .............

Where are the "Smiths, Jones', Johnsons, Campbells, Wallbangers?" Nowhere to be found.

Now what does that tell you?

[Freak Out]

The new avatar had me rolling Kiwon. Nothing like a nice photo of an Islamo-nuke 2 launch. Who knows....in a few years we could witness an Iran-Pakistan vs India-Israel nuclear tag team match.

[BallHawk]

The new avatar had me rolling Kiwon. Nothing like a nice photo of an Islamo-nuke 2 launch. Who knows....in a few years we could witness an Iran-Pakistan vs India-Israel nuclear tag team match.

Yeah, my money would be on Israel. The Arabs can try as much as they want, they can't destroy Israel.

[Joemailman]

I worry about the Pakistan/India situation the most. Pakistan is one coup from being the first Islamic Republic to have nukes, and coups are a part of Pakistan's history. Ahmadinejad (sp?) would do a lot of saber rattling if he gets nukes, but he knows an attack on Israel would bring the United States in.

[BallHawk]

I wouldn't say there's been a ton. I remember one from 1999 and then there was one in the late 1950s.

[Joemailman]

During that time however, there have been several times where the military has declared martial law for periods of time. It is a very unstable situation. It is well known that there are elements in the Pakistan military with Al-Qaeda sympathies. That is probably why Bin-Laden is believed to be hanging out along the Afghan/Pakistan border.

[BallHawk]

During that time however, there have been several times where the military has declared martial law for periods of time. It is a very unstable situation. It is well known that there are elements in the Pakistan military with Al-Qaeda sympathies. That is probably why Bin-Laden is believed to be hanging out along the Afghan/Pakistan border.

I can agree with that.

[BallHawk]

It also depends on how the elections go in October. If President Musharraf runs again and wins again, then the US and the rest of the world, will feel more secure with Pakistan. Yes, Musharraf has had controversy, but he has done more bad then good for that country. Whether he has assisted terrorists, I cannot say.

Again, that's assuming he isn't killed. The guy's had more assassination attempts then Ghandi.

[Freak Out]

Sorry to jack the thread Kiwon.....pretty amazing list. It appears to be majority Asian and Asian Subcontinent ethnicity first gen. The pot keeps cooking.....

[Kiwon]

Sorry to jack the thread Kiwon.....pretty amazing list. It appears to be majority Asian and Asian Subcontinent ethnicity first gen. The pot keeps cooking.....

I was going to say..... "Holy Thread Hijack, Batman!"

But I'm glad though some of you guys know where these places are on the map. I certainly hope that there will not be nuclear conflict anywhere (other than maybe in France ) but if there is you can bet that Iran or Hamas will launch first.

About the Brainiacs.....Immigrant and minority kids in the USA are consistently the best students we have. They have families that place a high value on education and push the kids to make the most of educational opportunities. They have good priorities.

But what about the majority? Why are the children of native born and, especially, Caucasian American families, not on the list? They make up the bulk of the population and yet are underrepresented.

I think it's a reflection on poor family priorities and social values. The list should be much more diverse than it is, but it's dominated by non-traditional family names.

I'm in the Smith and Jones camp and I think it's a shame that apparently traditional American families apparently have a low emphasis on educational achievement. There is no special reason that the top 60 students in the US should come mainly from ethnic minorities

[Joemailman]

I saw a documentary a couple of years ago relating how caucasian boys in this country are not urged to excel academically by our society. The emphasis is all on sports. They pointed out the term "nerd" refers to a boy who is not good at sports and other "masculine" endeavors, but is a good student. It is a negative term. Of course, it's even worse in the African-American community where the breakup of the family structure is so prevalent.

[Kiwon]

Good point.

You're exactly right. There is a strong negative peer pressure to not excel in school. Just look at all the negative stereotypes there are in the popular culture.

It's even worse in the Black community. The biggest slam that one faces is being told by others that "You're acting white."

[Tyrone Bigguns]

I'm more inclined to believe this is a case of misleading statistics. First, approximately 1/3 of the honor roll is what we would consider to be traditional americans..ie, white people from europe. Since minorities make up a 1/3 of the pop, one would think that they would only make up 1/3 of the honor roll.

However, that would a mistaken notion. One has to look at the "group" itself. The indians, chinese, etc. that come to this country are for the most part the best and brightest those countries have to offer. There is a large group of white people in this country who aren't into learning, and thank god..Tyrone would be beside himself if everyone got smart and no one was there to work the counter at Popeyes.

BTW, if we breakdown the numbers, it appears that asians are about a third, traditional americans about a third, indians/paki/etc. about 10%, etc.

But, don't for a minute think that there aren't morons back in their home countries...believe me, there are.

For the most part, the euros that started this country weren't the best and brightest. Poor irish, poor italians, etc. didn't come here for the educational opportunities..they came because they were poor.

Additionally, the indians, etc. come from cultures that stress learning and education. And, cultures that stressed learning in a way that meshes with western ideas of learning...ie, not oral history, but a written history.

And, the jobs one can get here with no education are filled over there with employees with masters degrees. Next time you talk with a call center rep, realize that person is most likely smarter and better educated than yourself.

I also could go into how a certain western religion often is at odds with learning and improving ones station in life.

Try and guess the lowest socio economic group by religion. Or try guessing the richest. I think you'd be surprised at the results.

[Merlin]

It is well documented that those of an Asian culture hold education in high regard. In America, all we do is throw money at our defunct educational system in hopes that some "Smith's" show up on lists like this in our own country. The problem is that we can spend more money but there is no evidence that spending more money on education = better education. In fact, test scores prove it to be a waste of money. Private schools score better in comparison to public schools on the tests used for comparison. There is strong evidence that the less you spend per student, the better their education is. It is interesting that here in Wisconsin there are people pissed off that the Voucher program private schools in Milwaukee provides more money per student (approximately $5000) in some cases then the actual tuition to attend that school. BUT, they have no problem paying twice that amount ($10,000 +) per student at the Public Schools. Nice logic they have...

[Joemailman]

You're comparing apples to oranges when comparing public to private schools. The fact that private school students score higher has , in my opinion a lot to do with the fact that a parent who will spend the money to send a child to a private school is likely to be a parent who will take a real interest in their child's education. That is a huge factor. Public schools usually end up trying to educate those students who unfortunately come from homes that do not nurture their education. I attended both Catholic and public schools, and the difference in the characteristics of many of the students was striking.