With all the recent protests around the country and university campuses about racial injustice, people are forgetting that it is very easy to ingratiate oneself into the mainstream American society. While protestors are busy blaming college administrators and law enforcement for their personal problems, maybe they can take a look in the mirror to see how they can affect some changes in themselves so that these issues don't keep recurring over and over again. To help out the clueless, here are my simple rules for how to become a model minority so that the police don't have to run you down just for walking down the street.
1. Get a good education. This country probably spends more money per pupil than any other country in the world, particularly for inner schools. Yet the test results are abysmal. Maybe if some of the students actually went to school and decided they wanted to learn something instead of harassing the teachers and other students then they can get a decent education.
2. Find and keep a job. Once somebody has an education that is actually at the high school graduation level, jobs surprisingly open up. Even if a good job is hard to find after graduation, just having the certificate makes it easier to apply to college to expand the job market even more. And when you get a job, keep plugging away at it. Don't quit just because you think your boss doesn't like you or you think time spent wandering the streets is more valuable than flipping burgers for $10 per hour. Most working Americans made far less than that in their youths and they still wound up with decent careers and lives. Work experience is valuable beyond the monetary compensation one gets in the biweekly paycheck.
3. Don't get pregnant or get somebody pregnant before marriage. If there is one thing that will keep most women down, it is to get pregnant in high school. Having a baby while trying to study in high school is difficult at best and usually leads to dropping out or suboptimal education. Guys, just don't get your girl pregnant unless you two are married. If you can't commit to a marriage, then you're not ready to commit to another life on this Earth. Walking away from your two minute mistake only shifts the burden of raising an innocent child to the mother and society at large. But if you don't care, then you are a douche bag who probably should have had a vasectomy.
4. Get married and stay married. Again it is about commitment and maturity. Once you are married, stay committed to it. Don't run off just because you had a fight about who spent $5 at Walmart. Don't file for divorce because somebody wanted to watch football while somebody else preferred the Kardashians. Divorce is one of the leading causes of financial insecurity that can afflict a person. It is also extremely detrimental to any children that might be involved. So stay married at all costs. Most arguments in marriages eventually become inconsequential as life goes on. If infidelity is involved, well then the guilty party was not mature enough to have a strong marriage to begin with.
5. Respect authority, such as parents, educators, and law enforcement. Nothing screams immaturity like somebody who thinks they know more than people who have had special training and been around much longer than you. When somebody tells you to sit still, stop talking, stop walking in the middle of the street, there's usually a reason for that. Don't feel like you're too good to follow the rules.
6. Stay off drugs, alcohol, and tobacco. You only have your health. Without it, you have nothing. If you're always in the hospital because you're sick or strung out, then it's unlikely you can keep a good job. Once you lose that, you'll realize how lucky you had it in the first place.
7. Find and nurture good friendships. Keep good friends around who look after your best interests. Don't hang out with people who only like you because you have money or own a nice car. True friendships survive when you are at your lowest point, which inevitably happens to everybody at least once in a lifetime.
8. Save money and spend wisely. It doesn't matter how much money one makes. Save as much of it as possible. And don't spend the money on stupid things like giant screen TV's, the latest cellphones, or drugs and alcohol. It's amazing how little one needs to provide for the basics of food, clothing, and shelter. Once you strip out extraneous costs like cable and cellphone plans, eating out at restaurants, and purchasing new clothes, one might actually be able to save some money.
9. Care about your neighbors. You know all those rundown neighborhoods that plague urban centers? Perhaps if its residents cared more about their blocks then it wouldn't be so poor. Report drug dealers to the police. Help a neighbor clean up a yard. Shop at your local businesses. Don't vandalize, rob, or burn down your neighborhood store just because you think you want to make a statement. It usually leads to businesses leaving for better areas, causing higher local unemployment and more disaffected youth, a downward spiral.
10. Repeat the same rules to the next generation. This process will take a long time. It took decades for Asians to transition from the Yellow Peril to a Model Minority. It will take time for society to notice this change in attitude and climate. But burning down cars and houses will not contribute to any meaningful long term changes.
Notice none of these rules involve any genetic factors involving presumably physical or mental superiority. They also don't require large infusions of money. We've spent trillions of dollars trying to rectify social inequality with hardly any noticeable difference. It does demand that people take a look at themselves and decide how they can change themselves to make their world a better place. As Michael Jackson sang in "Man In The Mirror,"
I'm starting with the man in the mirror,
I'm asking him to change his ways.
And no message could have been any clearer,
If you want to make the world a better place
Take a look at yourself, then make a change.
Showing posts with label Education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Education. Show all posts
Monday, November 30, 2015
Monday, June 1, 2015
Asian American Kids And The Piano Recital
It's a rite of passage that virtually every self respecting Asian American kid has to undergo, the musical recital. Whether it be the piano, violin, cello, or some other musical instrument, most AA children take up some sort of musical education as part of the normal childhood process. There is an innate feeling among AA parents that mastering music will make their children smarter and better disciplined. In fact, studies have shown that kids who study music do indeed test better.
But as I sat through another one of my children's piano recitals recently, I can't help but wonder if the education they receive from hours of practicing at the keyboard is the right type that will allow them to succeed in America. As all the parents listen attentively to the children playing studiously on stage, I began to ponder who is the real genius on stage, the seven year old who can master that Mozart sonata or the composer himself?
The fact is, musicians are a dime a dozen. Millions of people know how to play a Mozart sonata. But there is only one Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. These Asian kids were performing the equivalent of an American Idol contestant. They were essentially doing a karaoke the way Idol singers belt out their rendition of a Beatles tune while trying to make it their own. But no matter how good the musician, it's pretty clear the real prodigy is the composer, not the player.
As multitudes of AA parents shepherd their prodigies through piano and violin classes, are we then commoditizing musical proficiency? In the meantime, white American children are encouraged to take the less obvious path, forming their own bands and writing their own music. This is where the real riches lie, not a ten year grind of musical lessons just so they can get into an Ivy League school. By the way, an Ivy League admissions officer would take more notice of an AA applicant if the kid actually formed his own rock band than if he can claim to have played violin all throughout high school.
Is it any wonder that white people don't think Asian Americans have any originality or creativity? We assiduously force our children to play music created by other people while discouraging them from pursuing truly artistic outlets for their developing minds. It is this line of reasoning that leads to recent studies showing AA's are a large portion of the work force in Silicon Valley but dwindle dramatically in the management positions.
To all the AA parents out there. It's okay if your children don't want to take any musical lessons. The path to genius doesn't exclusively involve rote memorization of centuries old dead white Europeans' music.
But as I sat through another one of my children's piano recitals recently, I can't help but wonder if the education they receive from hours of practicing at the keyboard is the right type that will allow them to succeed in America. As all the parents listen attentively to the children playing studiously on stage, I began to ponder who is the real genius on stage, the seven year old who can master that Mozart sonata or the composer himself?
The fact is, musicians are a dime a dozen. Millions of people know how to play a Mozart sonata. But there is only one Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. These Asian kids were performing the equivalent of an American Idol contestant. They were essentially doing a karaoke the way Idol singers belt out their rendition of a Beatles tune while trying to make it their own. But no matter how good the musician, it's pretty clear the real prodigy is the composer, not the player.
As multitudes of AA parents shepherd their prodigies through piano and violin classes, are we then commoditizing musical proficiency? In the meantime, white American children are encouraged to take the less obvious path, forming their own bands and writing their own music. This is where the real riches lie, not a ten year grind of musical lessons just so they can get into an Ivy League school. By the way, an Ivy League admissions officer would take more notice of an AA applicant if the kid actually formed his own rock band than if he can claim to have played violin all throughout high school.
Is it any wonder that white people don't think Asian Americans have any originality or creativity? We assiduously force our children to play music created by other people while discouraging them from pursuing truly artistic outlets for their developing minds. It is this line of reasoning that leads to recent studies showing AA's are a large portion of the work force in Silicon Valley but dwindle dramatically in the management positions.
To all the AA parents out there. It's okay if your children don't want to take any musical lessons. The path to genius doesn't exclusively involve rote memorization of centuries old dead white Europeans' music.
Saturday, February 21, 2015
Medical Schools Also Discriminate Against Asians Americans
Asian American parents have believed for years that Ivy League universities discriminate against their kids for admissions. Black children can score 230 points less than whites on the SAT to gain admission to an Ivy League and Hispanic kids can get by with 185 points less. Meanwhile an AA child needs an SAT score 50 points higher to get into the same school. Consequently there is a thriving after school enrichment program in Los Angeles, specifically the San Gabriel Valley where most of the AA's cluster.
But if AA parents think they can relax once their children make it into an Ivy League, they better think again. The discrimination against AA students continues even into graduate school, or in this case, medical school.
With all the Asian doctors that we see nowadays, all the Indians, Chinese, Koreans, Vietnamese, etc., one would think that medical schools accepted their students based purely on academics. But that is apparently not so. The Association of American Medical Colleges put together this table ranking how likely different ethnicities are accepted into medical school based on the MCAT scores and GPA's. As you can clearly see, an AA premed student with a median MCAT of 27-29 stands only a 22.5% chance of being accepted into med school. A white student has a one in three likelihood of getting in. But if the student is black, he has a greater than 80% chance of being accepted into medical school.
If the AA student makes only the lowest MCAT scores of 24-26, it will be almost impossible for him to get into med school, just a 7.7% chance. But a black person with the same score still has a greater than even chance of being accepted, 65.8%. At the other end of the academic spectrum, an Asian American premed with the top MCAT scores of 30-32 will still only have a nearly even chance of going to medical school, just 63.1%. A black student with the same score is nearly guaranteed to make it, with a 94.6% probability of getting in. In other words, the lowest scoring black student has a better chance of getting into medical school than the highest scoring Asian American student.
Is is any wonder AA parents are worried sick about getting their offspring into good schools? We have to spend thousands of dollars and countless hours in extracurricular studies just to make sure our kids are at least on the same playing field as other kids for college admissions. Meanwhile black and hispanic students can hang out, play video games, and watch movies all they want without worrying about getting into college. Even if they don't do as well academically, the schools are so desperate to achieve "diversity" that they will accept nearly any of them as long as they know how to read and write complete sentences.
Asian Americans have to learn to handle this ugly discrimination early and often. No matter how hard we try to do well, we get penalized by the elitist and racist powers that control our academic futures. In fact, the more we achieve, the greater the discrimination. It appears that we will always be discriminated against here in so called color blind, melting pot America.
But if AA parents think they can relax once their children make it into an Ivy League, they better think again. The discrimination against AA students continues even into graduate school, or in this case, medical school.
With all the Asian doctors that we see nowadays, all the Indians, Chinese, Koreans, Vietnamese, etc., one would think that medical schools accepted their students based purely on academics. But that is apparently not so. The Association of American Medical Colleges put together this table ranking how likely different ethnicities are accepted into medical school based on the MCAT scores and GPA's. As you can clearly see, an AA premed student with a median MCAT of 27-29 stands only a 22.5% chance of being accepted into med school. A white student has a one in three likelihood of getting in. But if the student is black, he has a greater than 80% chance of being accepted into medical school.If the AA student makes only the lowest MCAT scores of 24-26, it will be almost impossible for him to get into med school, just a 7.7% chance. But a black person with the same score still has a greater than even chance of being accepted, 65.8%. At the other end of the academic spectrum, an Asian American premed with the top MCAT scores of 30-32 will still only have a nearly even chance of going to medical school, just 63.1%. A black student with the same score is nearly guaranteed to make it, with a 94.6% probability of getting in. In other words, the lowest scoring black student has a better chance of getting into medical school than the highest scoring Asian American student.
Is is any wonder AA parents are worried sick about getting their offspring into good schools? We have to spend thousands of dollars and countless hours in extracurricular studies just to make sure our kids are at least on the same playing field as other kids for college admissions. Meanwhile black and hispanic students can hang out, play video games, and watch movies all they want without worrying about getting into college. Even if they don't do as well academically, the schools are so desperate to achieve "diversity" that they will accept nearly any of them as long as they know how to read and write complete sentences.
Asian Americans have to learn to handle this ugly discrimination early and often. No matter how hard we try to do well, we get penalized by the elitist and racist powers that control our academic futures. In fact, the more we achieve, the greater the discrimination. It appears that we will always be discriminated against here in so called color blind, melting pot America.
Thursday, April 3, 2014
New Poster Child For Affirmative Action
However, every Asian American parent I've spoken with had the exact same thought when they first read this news--he got in because he is black. Now before you start saying this is just sour grapes, let me just go down the reasoning for our carping.
Mr. Enin's SAT scores are brought up in every article. He scored a 2,250 out of 2,400, which ranks him in the 99th percentile of all test takers. While that sounds wonderful, it's not out of the ordinary for high achieving students. Two thousand two hundred and fifty is just the bare minimum required for Asian students to get into a competitive school, much less an Ivy. I know Asian kids who scored a perfect 2,400 and still were not accepted by Stanford or tougher Ivies like Harvard. They may have a shot at lesser Ivies such as Brown or competitive University of California schools like Berkeley or UCLA. But 2,250 for Asian students will probably land them in the second tier of UC schools: Irvine, San Diego, or Davis.
Articles point out that Mr. Enin also participates in music and arts programs in school. He sings in an a cappella group and plays three instruments in orchestra. I would suggest that most Asian students, with equally high SAT scores, also play musical instruments. Heck, piano and violin are practically de rigueur for a proper Asian American upbringing. Three instruments in orchestra? I played four. It's not that hard if you play the same family of instruments such as B flat woodwinds or brass instruments. My precocious ability to play multiple parts in an orchestra never got me an invitation to an Ivy.
Sports as the reason Mr. Enin was accepted into multiple Ivies? While he is noted to participate in discus and shot-put, there is no mention that he got in on a sports scholarship. And since the Ivies don't offer any sports scholarships anyway, he didn't get accepted for his athletic abilities. Asian American kids also play actively in school sports, just not the usual football, basketball, baseball that many white and black kids play. We're more likely to excel in tennis or golf, which are not the usual glamor events that schools like to recruit for. If table tennis and badminton were NCAA Division I sports, we would totally rule. But since white people don't play or watch those activities, Asian kids don't benefit from these traditional Eastern pastimes.
Some people say that Mr. Enin probably received outstanding letters of recommendation from his counselors and teachers. That maybe true. But frankly, and not to put too delicate a way of saying this, his classmates probably made it easy for him to stand out. Studies have repeatedly shown that African American students score well below the averages of Asian and white kids. When a few of them inevitably break out of that mold and score above their peers, it is easy for their counselors and educators to sing their praises to the high heavens. They may see only one or two African American kids score that high each year. Meanwhile, in Asian predominant schools, a score of 2,250 with musical abilities will land you right in the middle of a pile of similar and not particularly outstanding students.
So once again, congratulations to Mr. Enin. He has achieved what most Asian American parents can only dream of. But his accomplishment only highlights the feeling that competitive colleges use race as a major factor in deciding who gets admitted. Though they all deny it, it is clear to many of us that affirmative action is alive and well in college admission offices around the country.
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
SCA 5 is defeated. Why are Asian Americans still voting Democratic?
SCA5 has gone down in defeat. The California Senate's proposed constitutional amendment to bring back affirmative action for admissions to public colleges in the state was opposed by thousands of Asian Americans who believed their children's advancement into higher education was going to be impaired by the proposal. Over 112,000 people signed a Change.org petition urging the California Senate to remove the proposal from November's ballot.
After hearing so many anguished voices from their constituents, three Asian American democratic state senators have withdrawn their support from the bill. Since the amendment requires a two-thirds majority for it to pass the chamber and every Republican state senator opposed it, the Senate no longer had the numbers to pass the bill onward. Instead a task force will now be formed to study how to improve access to higher education for minorities.
This again raises the troubling question of why so many AA's vote Democratic in elections? They were the largest supporters of President Obama's reelection two years ago, greater than even Latinos. Democrats will always place the priorities of African Americans and Latinos ahead of Asian Americans because of sheer numbers. They are a much bigger voting bloc and thus will always have a greater say in how Democrats form their priorities. Their policies of income redistribution and tight government regulations of commerce are the antipathy of most AA's core beliefs.
Perhaps this episode will wake up all those Asian American college students and young adults who voted for Democrats last time. Though it's fun to vote for a young hip president who espouses color blind rhetoric and environmental nirvana, ultimately elections do matter. Though many look down on the Republicans' image as the party of the 1%, isn't that ultimately the goal for most of us? Voting Democrat will only get you higher taxes and decrease your children's chances of getting into a good college.
By the way, no thanks to California Democratic State Senators Leland Yee, Ted Lieu, and Carol Liu for changing their minds about SCA 5. Their change of hearts shows how out of touch they are with their constituents and heritage. These politicians display their true colors by pandering to the Latino and African American voters for their upcoming elections while ignoring those who voted for them in the first place out of ethnic pride. For shame senators.
After hearing so many anguished voices from their constituents, three Asian American democratic state senators have withdrawn their support from the bill. Since the amendment requires a two-thirds majority for it to pass the chamber and every Republican state senator opposed it, the Senate no longer had the numbers to pass the bill onward. Instead a task force will now be formed to study how to improve access to higher education for minorities.
This again raises the troubling question of why so many AA's vote Democratic in elections? They were the largest supporters of President Obama's reelection two years ago, greater than even Latinos. Democrats will always place the priorities of African Americans and Latinos ahead of Asian Americans because of sheer numbers. They are a much bigger voting bloc and thus will always have a greater say in how Democrats form their priorities. Their policies of income redistribution and tight government regulations of commerce are the antipathy of most AA's core beliefs.
Perhaps this episode will wake up all those Asian American college students and young adults who voted for Democrats last time. Though it's fun to vote for a young hip president who espouses color blind rhetoric and environmental nirvana, ultimately elections do matter. Though many look down on the Republicans' image as the party of the 1%, isn't that ultimately the goal for most of us? Voting Democrat will only get you higher taxes and decrease your children's chances of getting into a good college.
By the way, no thanks to California Democratic State Senators Leland Yee, Ted Lieu, and Carol Liu for changing their minds about SCA 5. Their change of hearts shows how out of touch they are with their constituents and heritage. These politicians display their true colors by pandering to the Latino and African American voters for their upcoming elections while ignoring those who voted for them in the first place out of ethnic pride. For shame senators.
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Empathy As A Parent After Sandy Hook
It's been over 24 hours since the horrible, unspeakable murders of 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT. The fact that 20 of the victims were innocent first graders has left me and the entire nation in mourning and at a loss. Even now I can't help but well up with emotion with every newspaper article I read and every picture of the children that is presented.
It wasn't always this way. When the Columbine High School rampage happened in 1999, I was still single. I had no children. I felt no connection to the murder victims. Yes it was tragic but I did not feel any empathy or emotions about the incident. It was as if the news was talking about the latest bombings in the Middle East. Sorry it happened but life goes on.
The Aurora, CO movie theater shootings this past summer I wrote off as another one of America's all too frequent mass shootings. (It's terrible to write something like "all too frequent mass shootings".) I didn't get too emotional with that one either. What were all those people doing out at midnight watching a movie? Decent hard working folks don't go out at midnight to watch movies. They especially shouldn't have taken small children to the theater for a movie with multiple scenes of gory killings because they can't find a babysitter at that hour of night. Just a bunch of movie fanatics with poor judgement.
But the Sandy Hook massacre is something else altogether. I feel like I can put myself in those poor parents' shoes. Though I can't fully comprehend the trauma they are going through, and hopefully never will, I still weep with them. Perhaps it's because I have two children in the same age category as the victims, elementary school children who still believe in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy.
Ironically one of our kindergarten teachers earlier this year got into trouble for trying to explain to the children this exact scenerio in class. The kids were having a combined earthquake and disaster drill one morning. When one of the kids in my son's class asked the teacher what kind of disaster they are preparing for, the teacher told him they practice the drill in case some gunman walks into the school and starts shooting people.
Some of the students started crying. They told their parents what happened in class. Several of them had nightmares that night. The parents were in an uproar the next day. They cornered the principal and demanded an apology. The principal had to discipline the teacher and write a letter to all the parents to explain why the teacher had gone overboard with the drills.
Now it all seems so sadly prophetic.
It wasn't always this way. When the Columbine High School rampage happened in 1999, I was still single. I had no children. I felt no connection to the murder victims. Yes it was tragic but I did not feel any empathy or emotions about the incident. It was as if the news was talking about the latest bombings in the Middle East. Sorry it happened but life goes on.
The Aurora, CO movie theater shootings this past summer I wrote off as another one of America's all too frequent mass shootings. (It's terrible to write something like "all too frequent mass shootings".) I didn't get too emotional with that one either. What were all those people doing out at midnight watching a movie? Decent hard working folks don't go out at midnight to watch movies. They especially shouldn't have taken small children to the theater for a movie with multiple scenes of gory killings because they can't find a babysitter at that hour of night. Just a bunch of movie fanatics with poor judgement.
But the Sandy Hook massacre is something else altogether. I feel like I can put myself in those poor parents' shoes. Though I can't fully comprehend the trauma they are going through, and hopefully never will, I still weep with them. Perhaps it's because I have two children in the same age category as the victims, elementary school children who still believe in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy.
Ironically one of our kindergarten teachers earlier this year got into trouble for trying to explain to the children this exact scenerio in class. The kids were having a combined earthquake and disaster drill one morning. When one of the kids in my son's class asked the teacher what kind of disaster they are preparing for, the teacher told him they practice the drill in case some gunman walks into the school and starts shooting people.
Some of the students started crying. They told their parents what happened in class. Several of them had nightmares that night. The parents were in an uproar the next day. They cornered the principal and demanded an apology. The principal had to discipline the teacher and write a letter to all the parents to explain why the teacher had gone overboard with the drills.
Now it all seems so sadly prophetic.
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Secret To Getting Into Stanford Is...Ping Pong?
My daughter is just finishing up second grade. But that doesn't mean it's too early to start thinking about which private university she should go to after high school graduation. My wife is all too aware of how difficult it can be for Asian Americans to get into the elite colleges. We've all read the horror stories of Asian kids with nearly perfect SAT scores, high school GPA of 5.0, and president of their chess club and are still denied admission to Harvard or Stanford. Therefore now is the perfect time to start preparing our child to get into college.
The success of Jeremy Lin has changed my wife's thinking about the potential of athletics in advancing our child's academic career. Before Linsanity, sports was considered a black or white man's game, a back door way for somebody to get into an Ivy League without having to put of Ivy League academic numbers. Now she sees that sports can be a differential. My daughter can stand out from all the other Asian nerds trying to get into the same schools by excelling at a sport.
She considered many sports possibilities. Baseball? Too boring. Basketball? Too short. Soccer? Too slow. Then she settled on her personal love--table tennis. My daughter will excel at ping pong, making her stand out from all the other boring Asian geeks. When she presented her idea to me, I was skeptical. "Uh, I don't think the NCAA even recognizes ping pong as an official collegiate sport. I think you have to choose a sport that colleges care enough about to compete with other colleges and provide national exposure for their campus."
Pish posh, was my wife's reply, or something like that but in Chinese. To prove her point, she drove us to a table tennis academy in the San Gabriel Valley that specializes in training youth ping pong. She started talking to some of the parents there. My wife is not into subtlety. She pointedly asked another parent if they think their child's incredible table tennis skills will get him into a good college. Of course, was the reply. Who wouldn't want to recruit my child when he starts competing for the national team to represent America in the Olympics in 2020? After all, table tennis is an official Olympic event.
My wife looked at me with a wide grin. That settled it. Our seven year old daughter will start rigorous ping pong training to get her ready for admission into Stanford. In a few years, when she is ready for the national trials for female table tennis players, she will be ranked number one and Stanford can't possibly refuse her. This is a foolproof plan. Once she's in then she can drop all ideations about having a sports career and start concentrating on getting into medical school.
The success of Jeremy Lin has changed my wife's thinking about the potential of athletics in advancing our child's academic career. Before Linsanity, sports was considered a black or white man's game, a back door way for somebody to get into an Ivy League without having to put of Ivy League academic numbers. Now she sees that sports can be a differential. My daughter can stand out from all the other Asian nerds trying to get into the same schools by excelling at a sport.
She considered many sports possibilities. Baseball? Too boring. Basketball? Too short. Soccer? Too slow. Then she settled on her personal love--table tennis. My daughter will excel at ping pong, making her stand out from all the other boring Asian geeks. When she presented her idea to me, I was skeptical. "Uh, I don't think the NCAA even recognizes ping pong as an official collegiate sport. I think you have to choose a sport that colleges care enough about to compete with other colleges and provide national exposure for their campus."
Pish posh, was my wife's reply, or something like that but in Chinese. To prove her point, she drove us to a table tennis academy in the San Gabriel Valley that specializes in training youth ping pong. She started talking to some of the parents there. My wife is not into subtlety. She pointedly asked another parent if they think their child's incredible table tennis skills will get him into a good college. Of course, was the reply. Who wouldn't want to recruit my child when he starts competing for the national team to represent America in the Olympics in 2020? After all, table tennis is an official Olympic event.
My wife looked at me with a wide grin. That settled it. Our seven year old daughter will start rigorous ping pong training to get her ready for admission into Stanford. In a few years, when she is ready for the national trials for female table tennis players, she will be ranked number one and Stanford can't possibly refuse her. This is a foolproof plan. Once she's in then she can drop all ideations about having a sports career and start concentrating on getting into medical school.
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