"Tone Down the Tiger" by Susan S describes the life of most Asian-American students perfectly. It discusses the hardships Asian-American kids face while striving to be exactly what their parents want them to be.
The article talks about the "machine accurate resumes" and the way Asian parents push their children to be exactly like the others who have succeeded in life. By doing this, Asian parents are forcing their children to become exact replicas of another, without any of their own talents or interests. This is like training robots. It is also making it harder for Asian-American students to get into good colleges. It is forcing them to work extra hard and view others as threats, causing some to be socially challenged.
This article made me feel angry, sad, disappointed in myself, and understanding. I understood the pains of that Asian-American students faced. Being Asian-American myself, I can relate to the author when she says that it is stressful for Asian-American kids these days. It is hard for us to live up to the expectations our competitive parents set up for us. Being compared to people who made it into top schools or got the highest test scores is typical for us. Below a 90 is a disappointment. Even a 94 is barely satisfactory, accepted with a sigh and a comment on how we could have gotten a full score. We are constantly being compared to other people's children. This destroys our confidence and makes us feel like we are not good enough.
I feel that this article spoke out to and for the majority of Asian-American students. It mentions all the things that I have been wanting to tell my parents for years. It also tells readers that the truly special people are the people who create their own paths or follow different paths compared to the others who go with the flow and follow everyone else. Next year, I am going to high school. Since I was very young, it has been drilled into my brain that I must get into Stuyvesant, like all the other "smart people" do. My testing days are over, and I should be relaxing. Instead, I am worrying over my results and having nightmares about getting in, but failing and becoming a family disappointment. Juggling four SH-SAT classes a week, schoolwork, and Chinese classes were stressing me out, and I have the grey hairs to prove it.
"Tone Down the Tiger" really stood out to me in the November issue of Teen Ink. The author made me think about doing something to change the life of machine resumes and extra pressure ahead of me.It challenged me to walk a different road and be different from the other Asian-American kids. Most of all, it made me realize that I had the power to change my life by going against the Asian stereotypes and setting myself apart from the others in a positive way. Only then, would I truly be special.