

Apple is trying to rope 'em in early











The offer will reportedly run until August 31, 2013.





Source: The Los Angeles Times

Comments     Threshold


RE: a little bias here?
By BRB29 on 6/19/2013 3:13:36 PM , Rating: 3
Here's the beginning of the breakdown in your logic. No, it is not, and never has been, and never will be, the most crucial part of school. Lessons on social interactions should be handled by the parents, never the teachers.

that's great to hear! except in reality, most parents does not want to teach their kids proper behaviors.

Stop going with the asian stereotype. The reason why that stereotype came to be is because immigrants speaks a different language. The only thing universal is math. Asian people wants their kids to learn math for the high paying hot jobs like accounting, engineering, banking, tech, IT etc...
It had nothing to do being asian. You're just a stereotyping fool.

The best people at math actually has proven to always be white. Eg. Einstein, Hawkins etc...

RE: a little bias here?
Jesus Christ.

RE: a little bias here?

RE: a little bias here?
H2O + x = Wine?

RE: a little bias here?
By dgingerich on 6/19/2013 3:52:07 PM , Rating: 2
Do you know anything about Japanese schools? They go to school 6 days a week for full days, half days on Saturdays in some schools, and strongly encourage clubs or sports. A student who isn't in a club or sports is considered a slacker. Teachers are also required by many schools to have visits to their students' homes to talk to parents, unlike our stupid parent/teacher conference days where they teachers get about 5 minutes with most parents. It's a stark contrast compared to our easy schooling. They actually put forward the effort to teach their kids what they need to know, instead of forcing down what the teacher thinks they ought to think. From what I've heard, Korean schools aren't far off.

The Japanese and Koreans also happen to have far more difficult native languages to learn to read. They spend more on teaching the basics of their written language than we do. Japanese have to learn 46 characters in Katakana, 45 in Hiragana, plus hundreds of Kanji just to graduate high school. They actually use more than 6000 Kanji for various words, and 90% of the population don't know a quarter of them. It amazes me how many definitions some of their words have, too, and much of it contextual. Korean is more complex in some ways and less in others. Both countries also have a much more extensive history to learn, being centuries older than the US. I'm impressed they actually have the time to learn hardly anything about math or science while trying to master such difficult languages.

On top of all that, their culture has certain strong values that drive them to be more. It's not that they're more capable. They're human. They aren't any more or less capable, on average, than Europeans, Africans, or anyone else. It's that their cultures push working hard and doing their best. (The way the Japanese encourage each other isn't "good luck" but rather "Do your best!" It is never about luck. Luck is a lazy way of thinking.) It's ingrained in them from a very early age. "Good enough" is only good enough if you have done the best you can. That is something we seriously lack, and it shows. Second and third generational Asians in the US lose that. That's why they don't appear to fit the stereotypes. If you have known someone who is in the US or Europe visiting or just moved here from Japan or Korea, you'd know that for truth.

It's not exactly a stereotype that Asians do better in any particular thing. It's that Japanese and Korean culture and languages are pushing them harder than other cultures.

If you're wondering if I'm a fan of Asian cultures, you;re right. The more I learn about them, the more I like it. Well, I like Japanese, Korean, and Chinese cultures. I've learned a bit about others and haven't been as impressed.

RE: a little bias here?
By BRB29 on 6/19/2013 6:49:07 PM , Rating: 2
and look where the japanese is now. Huge budget deficit, enormous national debt, ridiculous inflation, government expense is almost twice the national tax revenue.

Let's not get started with China or Korea. They have their own massive problems.

RE: a little bias here?

RE: a little bias here?
By Farfignewton on 6/19/2013 10:43:13 PM , Rating: 2

A lot of that sounds rather familiar. I also doubt it any of it can be credibly linked to the Japanese education system. Tax revenue is down in part due to declining population, possibly because they're tired of living in broom closets.

RE: a little bias here?
By BRB29 on 6/20/2013 9:22:05 AM , Rating: 1
The whole point is he's making it sound like the Japs, Chinese, etc... got it right. They really don't and we did at one point. Now it seems like we went backwards.

great education = school + teachers + children + PARENTS

For some reason, PARENTS have dismissed themselves from this equation and blaming it all on the other 3.

RE: a little bias here?
By Tone12 on 6/21/2013 9:42:51 PM , Rating: 2
Japan does not have a huge inflation rate. In fact, they've been having a problem with deflation. Please don't just make things up and throw it all on a pile to try and justify a certain point of view.

RE: a little bias here?
By Reclaimer77 on 6/20/2013 1:26:03 AM , Rating: 1
Wow why don't you just boil down this bigoted wall of text to a simple: white=bad and lazy, Asian=good and more betterer?

I mean come on, this is so stereotypical it's just offensive.

Here is something that isn't a stereotype, Japan's outrageous world-leading suicide rate. While you're lauding us with the superiority of their culture, I'm thinking it's just all messed up.

RE: a little bias here?
By dgingerich on 6/20/2013 1:17:09 PM , Rating: 2
I didn't say they got it all right. (I'm white, btw, German, Irish, English, French, and a little Native American ancestry.) No culture is perfect. There are good and bad sides to all of them.

However, the Japanese and Koreans do have several points right where they need to be. That's what I'm highlighting.

Why is it when people promote something, others have to believe those people are denigrating other things that have nothing to do with it? It's like the stupid Literature teachers that keep overanalyzing old books to try to make them relevant to today's issues. I'm sorry. Most books simply relate to issues in their age. Some don't mean a darn thing.

Japan's suicide rate has the same reason behind it as any other suicide: loss of hope. All suicides boil down to that. If they had hope for the future, like that of certian western religions, their suicide rates wouldn't be so high.

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