Pawan Dhingra

Pawan Dhingra is associate provost and associate dean of the faculty and the Aliki Perroti and Seth Frank ’55 Professor of U.S. Immigration Studies, at Amherst College. He is president of the Association for Asian American Studies. A multiple-award winning author and teacher, his most recent monograph is Hyper Education: Why Good Schools, Good Grades, and Good Behavior Are Not Enough (New York University Press, 2021), for which he was profiled in the Netflix documentary, Spelling the Dream. His bylines include The New York Times, Time Magazine, CNN, and other venues.

Hyper Education: Why Good Schools, Good Grades, and Good Behavior Are Not Enough

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Beyond soccer leagues, music camps, and drama lessons, today’s youth are in an education arms race that begins in elementary school. In Hyper Education, Prof. Pawan Dhingra uncovers the growing world of high-achievement education and the after-school learning centers, spelling bees, and math competitions that it has spawned. Drawing on over 100 in-depth interviews with teachers, tutors, principals, children, and parents, Dhingra delves into the why people participate in this phenomenon and examines how schools, families, and communities play their part. Moving past “Tiger Mom” stereotypes, he addresses why Asian American and white families practice what he calls “hyper education” and whether or not it makes sense.

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