Andrew Lam: Article Review

Paper Summary:

This paper critiques Andrew Lam's article, "Too Much Self-Esteem Can Be Bad for Your Child", which presents one aspect of contemporary culture and American education, and uses a personal story drawn from the very trendy YouTube phenomenon. The author of the paper argues that while there is some substance to the argument against placing self-esteem above real achievements, Lam's article as written uses very limited source data and uses this data to make a hasty generalization without dealing with any opposing or alternative data that might present a contrary case.

From the Paper:

"Following the two studies, Lam devotes the remainder of his article to an elucidation of his subjective opinions about the success of Asian students in American colleges, and about their recent dominance on certain campuses in the University of California system. While his opinions may be worthy of exploration and discussion, they do not logically arise from the limited data he has brought forth up till now. He appears to be biased in favor of "Asian" students, although he simultaneously seems to be reinforcing positive stereotypes about them, as well as over-generalizing by failing either to distinguish between different Asian nationalities and cultures (of which there are many) or between different non-Asian nationalities and cultures. Also left unanswered is why so many successful, intelligent Asian students are leaving their home nations to study in the United States, when one must presume that their own nations' universities must be at least on a par with those in the West, if not superior."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Lam, Andrew. "Too much self-esteem can be bad for your child." AlterNet Media. 10
• July 2007. http://www.alternet.org/story/56230.

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