Summary

In Chapter 8, the author speaks to a dedicated, straight-A Asian-American student named Mike Wei, who would prefer to study and listen to the teacher than interact with other students. Cain visits a high school in Cupertino, California, where 77% of the students are Asian-Americans, and the average SAT score is 27% higher than the U.S. average. In this school, the popular kids are the studious kids, not the athletes. Here, the students are titled towards the introverted side of the extroversion-introversion scale, and they often forgo parties to stay at home to study, as they have promised their parents to do. An immigrant from Taiwan tells Cain that she was amazed when she arrived in the U.S. and professors encouraged their students to speak instead of telling them to listen. American professors are confused by Asians' unwillingness to speak in class. Some Asians believe...