Asian Parents

For the first time in my life I got lower than an 85 on a math test. In fact, I got a 65. The first thought that came to my mind was to hide it from my parents and just try to make up for it with better grades in the future. But what does it mean to a parent when you don't know what your child is struggling in?
This is how my parents raised me. They taught me that life was a dog-bite-dog society where only the strongest and toughest make it to the top. So I grew up as a cynic - one that prided academics over much else. In high school, I started losing it. It became hard to survive just with a competitive frame of mind. Grades are everything to my parents; grades are their top priority next to money. So I grew up hiding bad tests in my bed sheets, pillow covers, in between textbooks, heck even inside tissue boxes.

I can also truthfully say that I have never had a real conversation with my father. Whenever I tried to talk to my father about something not science-related or academic, he would tell me to "stop wasting time" or "do my homework." OF course, I rarely get the chance to talk to my father anyway, since he has around a 13 hour workday. My mother told me everything I know about my father. I learned that he swam across a river in hopes of finding a good job, was used by a young woman to pay for her college and then dumped when he came to America. If it weren't for my mother's stories, I would know nothing about the man who so fondly reads newspapers at the dinner table.

So what has the idea of parenting among Asian American parents come to? To get your son or daughter into an Ivy League? Is this what the Asian-American dream is?