A new book just out analyzes America and how culture plays a role in academic and economic success. I have just ordered it so will provide my comments later. Amazon.com has a good number of Reader Reviews to help us sort out the issues.
The Triple Package: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America 2014
The three traits are — superiority complex, insecurity, iself discipline. Our Globe&Mail newspaper and online story drew 100 comments http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/amy-chuas-dangerous-ideas/article16750252/#dashboard/follows/and below is mine:
Saw The Reviews — Ordered The Book
It was a review by Robert Morris of Dallas Texas that sent a jolt through me. This is the pivotal author’s quote:
“The real promise of a Triple Package America is the promise of a day when there are no longer any successful groups in the United States — only successful individuals."
This conclusion shocks me because I have been closely monitoring the US project called Common Core Standards — a federal program that induces states to homogenize school curricula to common standards. I do not see any resulting “successful individuals” emerging from this program — just groupthink collectivist masses.
I would have thought these authors would have valued diversity. That independence and resistance to the “dumbing-down” general direction of schooling would be applauded.
There’s probably a lot we can learn from these aspirational groups about resisting the push and pull of a state apparatus that aims for homogeneity — and need I say, a compliant citizenry !