Where does genius come from

Linda Ho spread out a stack of transcripts from her son Daniel in front of me. His eyes were full of smiles, and his pride was beyond words. Daniel is clearly doing very well in school, and these papers, which were either rated A or A +, were not enough to express the teachers' appreciation for him, and they were also full of their compliments for him. In the eyes of the teachers, Daniel "performed extremely well in all subjects", and his character was excellent, especially in areas such as poetry, calligraphy and mathematics.

　　Linda Ho, 46, an immigrant from China, and her husband Vincent run a small shop peddling takeaway food in a slum area of Manchester. She said she started planning for her son's future when he was very young. Linda believes that proficiency in multiple languages can add points to her son's future, so Daniel was sent to a private kindergarten to study English at the age of 2, and began to learn Cantonese, the dialect of her parents' hometown, at the age of 3. Mandarin classes at the age of 5, and Spanish at the age of 7.

　　This is only part of his learning content, and Daniel also signed up for martial arts classes. Will follow the customers who come to the store to learn chess skills, or practice guzheng. Speaking of the guzheng, Linda proudly pushed her son to a corner of the house, where a guzheng was placed. Daniel finished playing like a cloud and water, and stood aside a little shyly.

　　Daniel is 9 years old, with a height of less than 1.4 meters and a handsome appearance: a pair of glasses on his face, and his black hair is neatly shaped into a one-sided hairstyle by hairspray. He told me he knew he had to go to university. "Which school do you want to go to?" I asked, and Daniel said without thinking: "Oxford, because it's the best."

　　Daniel has a strict schedule of 2 hours of homework per night (mostly assigned by his parents); Spanish, Mandarin and Guzheng classes on Saturdays; Bible and Kung Fu classes on Sundays. On Daniel's most recent transcript, the only subject that fell short was physical education. This reminds me of a joke about Chinese parents: The only subjects Chinese parents can tolerate for their children to perform slightly worse are drama and physical education.

　　Daniel's situation is representative of a class of people: such people are not uncommon in the UK, they are of Asian descent, from China or India, and have done well in British schools. In the UK, for example, in 2010, 75.1% of Chinese students and 71.3% of Indian students passed five GCSE subjects (including English and maths), compared with only 50% of white British students.% can achieve this result, and black immigrants from the Caribbean coast are even worse. This result undoubtedly upends the old notion that social class determines human performance. Among white and black children, students from wealthy families performed much better than those from poor families. But this rule does not apply to the Chinese world: Chinese students from the poorest families not only keep up with their fellow citizens, but also consistently outperform children from white middle-class families. The same description applies to children of Indian descent.

　　As for the causes of this phenomenon, Professor Kapadia of the School of Education, University of London's point of view is that working-class parents in China and India, no matter where they are, have high expectations for their future generations, and they regard education as a way out. Also working-class children, some white or Caribbean descendants are not indoctrinated with the idea that their parents do not see education as useful in changing the status quo of the family, and naturally do not see it as a way out. So children also lack motivation to learn.

　　In August 2011, Da Vinci Naruka, a 19-year-old boy from India, appeared in the local Manchester newspaper because he had only been in the UK for three years and had achieved surprisingly good results in his university entrance exams. In 2008, 16-year-old Naruka moved here from Italy with his working parents. His mother works in a cake factory and his father is a forklift driver. Although the income cannot be compared to when he was in Italy, the parents feel it is worth it for their son's future. Now Naruka is preparing to study at Cambridge Medical School.

　　"My parents urged me to keep studying when I was very young," says Naruka. "They didn't use any punishment, they just told me to be independent, have a decent job, and get a good income. Indians are a people who know self-discipline, and parents usually Tell your children what to do is right." Naruka is undoubtedly proud of his achievements and his nation's culture: "When I have children, I will copy this model and pass on our nation's culture."

　　Looking at Naruka today, I can't help but think of myself yesterday. I am also of Indian descent, growing up in a small English town called Stellybridge. My father grew up in India when he was a child, and every three months he had to take exams in various subjects to prove himself to his parents and teachers. My father recalled: "There is an hour of entertainment every day, and as long as the street lights are on at night, you have to go back home and continue your studies." There, learning is not only a desire to acquire knowledge, but also a spirit passed down from generation to generation. My parents brought this spirit given by my hometown to the UK.

　　Professor Capadia agrees with the statement about cultural heritage. He pointed out that most Chinese culture is rooted in the thought of Confucius, and Confucius particularly emphasized the importance of education. It is not difficult to understand why in 2005, after Wang Yinan, a 14-year-old Chinese boy, was admitted to Oxford University, unlike the British media's cheering and praising him as a child prodigy, China Daily took it easy to say There are many so-called "Oxford gifted children" in China.

　　Is this pursuit of high scores advisable? Critics disagree with the practice of keeping children at home six days a week for long periods of advanced training. Professor Capadia also believes that training children in mechanical memory and repetition, rather than teaching them to think and innovate for themselves, is not desirable.

　　But Rui Lei Chen doesn't think so. Rui Lei, who just started her third year of study at Oxford University's history department this year, attributes her entry to a prestigious school to the benefit of nine years of basic education in China. When she first arrived in the UK with her family, she attended a comprehensive school in the Essex region. Despite high dropout rates, violence and many teenage mothers, none of this affected Rui Lei. During her first week of school, the geography teacher assigned some homework, and she was the only student to complete it. In her words, "It doesn't matter if you don't finish it, because even the teacher forgot what he said." In the high school graduation exam, Ruilei achieved good grades in 8 courses A + and 3 courses A, which was unprecedented in her school.

　　"There is a fighting spirit implanted in you." She mentioned the impact of her earlier life in China on her. She believes that there is a "sense of urgency" for the first and second generations of Chinese to go to the UK. She joined the university dance troupe and passed the flute grade 8 exam. "But my mother never forced me to do anything, she simply told me that things should have a beginning and an end." Rui Lei not only expressed her own heart, but also represented her family and motherland.

　　Queen Elizabeth School is located in north London and is nationally renowned for its outstanding students. At this school, white British make up 16% of the student body, Indians make up 32% and Chinese make up 9%. Headmaster Neil Enright advocates for students to seek common ground while reserving differences and not wear tinted glasses to see students of other races. Still, the prominence of Asian students here makes one can't help but talk about it in groups. Among the top performers at the school: there are two sets of twins, from China and India. Chinese brothers Jin Xi (transliteration) and Jin Mingyuan (transliteration) have jointly obtained 9 A + and 1 A, and now they are preparing to study medicine in Cambridge. Annap Desai, from India, got three A + grades and one A grade in homework. And his twin brother Amit Desai got one A + and three A grades. Both brothers represented the UK in chess.

　　Amit will study economics and geography at University College London, which is also the alma mater of Priti Rasi. Priti, 24, works in a bank. This ambitious Indian girl is a top student in middle school, high school and university. She said: "A lot of my friends at school were white, and if I didn't do well in any test, they would think it was impossible. Of course, it was my parents who were the most shocked." Even an outstanding Indian student like her is still touched by her enterprising Chinese classmates in college, "They go into the library in the first week, collect all the books they might use this school year, and then Take them home." From her words, it is not difficult to see the difference between Chinese children, Indian children and British children, who are also enterprising students.

　　Let's go back and look at Daniel's daily life: every day, while Daniel was doing his homework, his father would carefully cook delicious meals for him in the kitchen. I smelled the aroma that filled the room and couldn't help but wonder, when Daniel becomes a father, will he pass on the cultural traditions instilled in him by his parents? Another important part of Chinese culture is filial piety. Linda would recently joke with Daniel that one day he would despise his parents and "kick them out of the house". Whenever he heard his mother say this, Daniel always retorted as quickly as possible: "No way!"

　　He said he would follow in the footsteps of his parents.