RICE PADDIES AND MATH TESTS “NO ONE WHO CAN RISE BEFORE DAWN THREE HUNDRED SIXTY DAYS A YEAR FAILS TO MAKE HIS FAMILY RICH” Andi Deng, Alex Samuel, Joe Starace, Tom LaValle

 Rice cultivated in China for thousands of years  Spread throughout East Asia  Rice paddies are built  Elaborate mountainside terraces, marshes, river plains  Complex irrigation system built around the field  Has to drain properly while keeping plants submerged  Had to be fertilized repeatedly, traditionally “night soil”  Timing was key  Different types of rice grew differently  Planted a dozen types at a time; reduced chance of losing harvest Rice Farming

WORK ETHIC  Village in China of 1,500 people could support themselves on 450 acres of land, typical size of family farmland in American Midwest  Western agriculture centered around mechanics  Rice agriculture is skill oriented  Average of 3,000hrs/year of work  Rice farmers typically work harder than any other farmers throughout history  !Kung bushmen of the Kalahari Desert, Botswana

MATH TEST Read the numbers outloud : 4,8,5,3,9,7,6 Look away and memorize the numbers for 20 seconds. Say them outloud again.

 “If you speak English, you have about 50% chance of remembering them perfectly” (228)  “If you are Chinese, though, you are certain to get it right every time” (228)

 Big difference between how Western and Asian languages are constructed  Number system in English is highly irregular—ten, eleven, twelve  Number system in China, Korea or Japan are logical— ten, ten-one, ten-two

MATTHEW AFFECT KICKS IN  The disenchantment of math with Western children start at third or fourth grade  Its linguistic structure is clumsy  Basic rules seem arbitrary  Asian kids with same age don’t feel nearly confused  Able to calculate faster  Hold more numbers in head

 Asian children are more likely to enjoy math, which leads them to try a little harder and more willing to do their homework  Built-in advantage + hard work ethic from culture= Matthew Affect  Questionnaire—asks 120 questions  Such as what level their parents education is  Turns out that the questionnaire ranking and the math ranking are exactly the same