For a long time, most people were convinced that a child was bestowed with a certain level of intelligence at birth. Past studies have revealed that genetics could not have been the sole determinant of a child’s intelligence. However, as the world changed from using genetics to explain differences in intelligence, there was also a corresponding shift to focus on culture and the environment. Culture is now believed to be the determining factor in explaining differences between races (Liu 5).
By examining how learning takes place between Asian Americans, it emerges that we are more intelligent than the rest of the population, in addition, it also emerges that the environment has something to do with the grades achieved by both the Latinos and the Asian Americans. This paper shall endeavor to compare the Asian Americans with the Latino ethnic group.
It will mainly focus on how learning takes place within the two groups and the associated outcome. In addition, the paper will also use an article by Fuller and Garcia Coll (2010) to explore the choices made by parents and how they affect learning.
The article by Fuller and Garcia Coll (559) discusses the environment in which children are brought up in Latino households. It especially focuses on immigration and how it affects the manner in which children grow up.Using four theoretical frameworks, the paper explains how learning and development take place within culturally bounded context.
In their analysis, the authors show how learning is perceived as taking place and the changes that have occurred over the years. The paper further explains how traditional Latino families are able to keep the family close and support their children socially. It also highlights the pressure on children and teenagers to assimilate into the American culture and how this poses a risk to their development.
Overall, its aim is to bring an understanding of how learning takes place within groups that are heavily influenced by culture. This paper argues that Latino children use socialization practices to create their identity at home. The social practices acquired at school further influence their school performance (Fuller & Garcia Coll 560).
There is an obvious different in the family sizes of both the Latinos and the Asian Americans. For example, Latinos living in America typically have larger families than Asian Americans. Such Latinos as the Mexican Americans had 2.4 children on average as of 2003 while white and other minorities had an average of 2.0 children, according to study conducted by Fuller et al 2009 (qtd. in Fuller & Garcia Coll 561).
This difference has contributed to the disparity observed in terms of development between the two groups. The cognitive development of children raised in large families tends to be slower than that of children raised in smaller families (Fuller & Garcia Coll 561). This is because as the size of the family increases there is a corresponding depletion of the available resources.
The order in which the children are born also affects the quality of each child’s education. For example, the first child gets a good education while those born later in families do not get as much education (Black et al.6). The interest and commitment that parents show their first child also declines as the number of children increases as they are now faced with the responsibility of taking care of more children.
Asian American parents differ from Latino parents in the way they approach their children’s schoolwork. From an early age, Latinos create an environment that enables a child to observe and copy the behavior of the society (Fuller & Garcia Coll 560). Asian Americans believe that the child should be solely focused on school and do not encourage distractions that interfere with it. Any activities such as sports, taking part in school plays or socializations are considered distractions.
For those Asian American parents who own businesses, their children are not permitted to work in the shops while neglecting their school work (8). For Latino parents, the learning that takes place for their children is more observational than book related. Learning in Latino families takes place through participation in everyday activities.
Children will do household chores and take care of the younger ones in the family. Teenagers are also allowed to work for pay to improve the family’s economic status (Fuller & Garcia 563). The Asian American and Latino families both aim to improve their status through their children but their approach differs.
Asian Americans students do better academically than Latino students. A study by (Liu, 2) shows that the number of Asian American students who complete college is two thirds greater than that of Latinos (2).
Asian Americans do better in school as their parents have advanced education, they are able to attend schools with enough resources, their peers support them and their community is always looking out for them (Liu 5). Latinos do not do as well as Asian Americans as they are not fully focused on academics alone.
They are heavily involved in community activities and extracurricular activities. They are also eager to assimilate into the American culture and this affects their academic performance. Second generation Latino teenagers succumb to peer pressure and let go of family duties leading to a deterioration of their performance in school according to a study by Fuligni 2001 (qtd. in Fuller and Garcia Coll 560).
First generation Latinos are more engaged in school work as they are able to identify more closely with their ethnic community (Fuller & Garcia Coll 560). The instability of being torn between two cultures affects Latinos more than Asian Americans as Asian Americans are more integrated and less likely to be totally assimilated in their childhood.
In Conclusion, this paper has shown that there are various forms of learning. Using an article by Fuller and Garcia (2010) it has explored how learning takes place in the Latino community. For example, learning can take place through observation as practiced by Latinos. On the other hand, the Asian Americans have a preference for academic learning. This paper has explained how Latinos differ from Asian Americans when it comes to modes of learning.
It has shown that in early childhood, Asian Americans prefer that their children concentrate on schoolwork and avoid any extracurricular or social activities while Latinos see observational learning as beneficial to the child and are encouraged to work to support their families. It has also explained that the large size of Latino families hinders learning due to a scarcity of resources and inadequate attention on each individual child.
It has also shown that this may be why Latino students perform poorly in school in comparison with the Asian American students. The paper has pointed out that as the second generation Latinos try to emulate their American counterparts and in the process, they lose track of their school work and perform poorly in comparison with first generation Latinos.
Works Cited
Black, Sandra, Devereux, Paul, and Salvanes, Kjell 2004, The More the Merrier? The Effect of Family Composition on Children’s Education. Web.
Fuller, Bruce and Garcia Coll, Cynthia. “Learning From Latinos: Contexts, Families, and Child Development in Motion. “Developmental Psychology, 46.3 (2010):559-565. Print.
Liu, Eric. The Accidental Asian, New York: Vintage Books, 1998. Print.