Frontline - Class Act

We are allowed to study at our own pace here. And over there it's more like, we are given a set amount to do at a set amount of time and if we don't do it by then...it's a big crime not to get things done on time.

– Selwyn College student Anna Tong on the difference between Kiwi and Asian schools

We always believe that we as parents, we have to try our best to push our own children to work harder in order to achieve better academic results.

– Charles Ho on expecting his children to push themselves to get good marks

I think it is a stereotype to say Asian children are clever and to assume that all Asian children are clever because they're not. You need to look at the whole range and certainly even in mathematics, I was talking to a maths teacher yesterday who said their top two students were Asian and their bottom four students were Asian...

– English Literacy teacher Dorothy Brown on the stereotypes surrounding Asian students

I was so used to the hard work in Taiwan and when I came here it just became a habit.

– Irene Peng on the dicipline instilled in her by her time at an Asian school

My studies show that although they have no higher IQs on average than white Americans, that if you look at their professional profile and their academic achievement, they behave as if they're a group with about 10 or 20 points higher IQs than they've got.

– Professor Jim Flynn on the findings of his studies into why Asian people achieve so well educationally

For so many years, Māori people didn't like school because they were not allowed to speak their own language, they were beaten for speaking their own language and therefore their attitude to school quite rightly, quite understandably, became negative...

– Literacy Teacher Dorothy Brown on the historical disincentive for Māori children to seek success at school