225BatonRouge.com

Our cover story, “These kids are smarter than yours,” is intended to be provocative and to make us think in new ways about how we educate our children.

Are we saying every Asian child is simply smarter? Of course not. Are we saying white or black students aren’t among the best and brightest? Again, no.

What we are saying is this tiny fraction of our population, people who arrive here barely able to speak our language, represent a giant share of the best students in the city.

And we’re asking what can we learn from that.

The seed that led to the cover story was planted some time ago at a gathering of Asian parents. They were talking about public schools and what could be done to improve them. Someone pointed out that many top Asian students weren’t, in fact, at private schools, but at Baton Rouge’s public schools, such as McKinley and Baton Rouge Magnet High School.

There, a small number of Asian students defy the odds and occupy a far larger percentage of the top ranked students than the actual Asian population.

The mother of one of those children chimed in and said this: “If people want to know why our children do so well, why don’t they just ask us? We would be happy to share with them.”

So 225 magazine set out to do just that. We asked them.

We talked to middle school students, high school students and college students. We spoke with administrators and teachers.

What we found is a cultural work ethic that is strong and devout.

It’s discussed all the time. The children are as aware as the parents are about the rigors of being accepted into the best high schools, the best universities.

And it turns out, Asian parents can be exceedingly competitive about the success of their children in school. When Asian moms and dads gather at social occasions, and certainly at school functions, their conversations are dominated by talk of SAT scores, scholarship offers and university acceptance letters.

But we found some Asian parents are more than reticent about talking about their children, outstanding though they may be.

In fact, a number of families initially said they’d talk to us; but when they learned our story focused on Asian students, they shied away.

Responding to an editor pressing her to re-think her decision not to participate, one mom said humbly, “White students are smart, too; black students are smart, too.”

And there it is.

They shun attention or praise, and shy away from being elevated in readers’ eyes.

In a world where so many people unworthy of our attention get it through infamous means, here in Baton Rouge at least, some who deserve it as much as anyone try to avoid it.

What a refreshing dose of humility.