A close examination of this stereotype (model minority), however, reveals its damaging effects both for Asian Americans and for other people of color. First, the stereotype denies the face that some Asian Americans continue to struggle against structural and other barriers. Second, it has been used as a political weapon against other marginalized groups of color. – Lee

Seeing many private after-school centers in my community where I live in surrounding area of Brooklyn China town reveals that academic performance plays a critical role within the ethnicity. Many studies show that East Asian Americans outperform non-Hispanic whites, blacks, and Hispanics by a significantly large margin. For example, Chinese-Americans make up a high percentage of high school valedictorians and academic decathlon winners, as well as enrollment into prestigious universities. However, there are some costs behind the academic successes.

Family background and contribution affects students’ academic achievement. Parental involvement influentially translates to kids’ upbringing, such as mentioning current school experiences, enrolling the child in extra educational activities, restricting TV watching on school days, and the parents’ network of friends. In addition, most Chinese parents adopt an awarding system in which limited special privileges are determined by academics. In other words, due to family members’ cultural and economic experiences, families shape kids’ learning activities based on their expectations. One of my middle school classmates, whenever he got top three in the class, his mother would reward him $30.

Many studies refer cultural values and beliefs as the most dominant reasons for Asian Americans’ high achievement. Asian-American parents and students possess higher aspirations on education in terms of greater motivation and positive attitudes toward school, which are the outcomes of the “Confucian Doctrine.” Confucian Doctrine esteems the “malleability of human behavior and the importance of effort as the route to accomplishment.” Confucian Doctrine especially influences in East Asia, such as China, Taiwan, Japan, and Korea. As a result, the rooted beliefs in Asians cause parents to be willing to make a lot of sacrifices or compromises for the sake of their children’s education.

However, the academic performance becomes the only index deciding the kids’ everything. Asian-American students only allow for success without tolerance to fail. They hold the extraordinarily high expectations on themselves; meanwhile, parents and society also set this expectation just as a normal benchmark for them. Therefore, their academic excellences are taken for granted without satisfaction. For instance, Jeremy Lin, who is Taiwanese American, an NBA basketball player and Harvard University alumnus, reflected in an article titled “The Silicon Valley Suicides” in The Atlantic magazine, by his high school anxious experience in the Bay Area. “The pressure to succeed,” Lin recalled the pressure coming from all around him because he was believing that success merely relied on the one shot at high school only by GPA, SAT score and college applications. He wrote about not being able to sleep and waking up covered in sweat from nightmares of failing a test. He also shared the difficulties registering his classmate and one friend committed suicide due to the academic stress.

Despite the Asian-American students’ excellent educational achievements, there are growing pains hidden under these successes, namely, poor psychological and social adjustment, the lowest self-esteem and the highest depressive symptom scores. These kids spend the greatest amount of time on homework, place the most importance on grade, and spend the least amount of time socializing with friends outside of school.

The ethnic resources and social capital that make up the child’s community plays a crucial role in disproportionately reinforcing academic achievement in STEM fields. Therefore, it is recommended for teachers to encourage students to explore creative outlets in other liberal arts fields or extracurricular activities.