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I am skeptical of this pervasive claim because it is effectively unfalsifiable; claiming kids from Asia are “just good at tests” and that thus we don’t need to

I am skeptical of this pervasive claim because it is effectively unfalsifiable; claiming kids from Asia are “just good at tests” and that thus we don’t need to worry about our education system ignores the fact that most European countries do better on standardized tests too (the UK, Germany, Finland, etc.). And to add some anecdata of my own, in college I did not notice any race of people being less or more creative than another. If anything during office hours the people who had trouble “improvising” were remarkably well distributed corresponding to the demographics of the school.

Karrot_Kream 9y ago
> I am skeptical of this pervasive claim because it is effectively unfalsifiable; claiming kids from Asia are “just good at tests” and that thus we don’t need to worry about our education system ignores the fact that most European countries do better on standardized tests too (the UK, Germany, Finland, etc.). That's not what I said (though you may be commenting on my response and not responding directly to me). I claim that the Chinese and Indian systems have a lot more memorization than the US or European systems and that they often produce students that excel at a skill that doesn't always correlate (but isn't uncorrelated either) with what I want STEM graduates to be. I freely admit the US system is bad, if not terrible, but I'd rather look to Europe for inspiration than Asia here.