In the story, Mother Tongue, the author Amy Tan explains her real life story of being raised by a mother who is a Chinese immigrant, and the struggles she faces because of it. All across the country standardized tests, are taken by students of all ages, in order to test their knowledge compared to the rest of the country as a whole. These tests can be in individual subjects or a combination of many. For Amy, and other minority students, are not given the same opportunities out of the classroom to better their learning. Our country has brought in immigrants from other countries who start families and raise them in the states. Kids from non-English speaking households are raised in a completely different set of rules and customs than in true American households. Based on research and Amy Tan’s story, evidence proves that in the United States, Standardized Tests are unfair to students who are brought up in non-English speaking households.  

Minority students who grow up in non- English speaking households experience difficulties when testing, because of their upbringing. For example, Amy Tan grew up being raised by a mother who spoke broken English. Amy has learned to view her mother’s broken English as normal. Tan realizes this when she is giving a speech in front of many people, as she always does, but this time her mom is in the room and she feels herself wanting to speak in easier words so her mother could understand. She says, “The talk was going along well enough, until I remembered one major difference that made the whole talk sound wrong. My mother was in the room” (Tan 342). Based on her situation, Tan noticed how her level of English can change. For example, when talking to a friend, slang is present and normal. But when talking to an authority figure, better grammar and politeness is used. The human mind does this unconsciously. The words and meanings of certain words are interpreted different from person to person, let alone culture to culture. In the story, Tan mentions taking tests and says, “I knew what the tests were asking, but I could not block out my mind the images already created- making it impossible for me to sort something out so logical” (Tan 345). This shows how Tan’s bi-cultural background interred with her ability to answer a question.  A study was done in 1980 that proved minority students excel in the math and science sections and receive lower scores on reading and writing related work (Green and Griffore 242). Minority students have not learned certain background knowledge that the test makers expect every student to know. It becomes unfair to penalize a student for not understanding the origin of the question. Thus, this is why non- English speaking household students score lower, as Tan proves through her personal experiences as growing up and learning from her mother. 

Throughout her life, Tan has experienced first-hand how differently authorities view her mother. In the reading, Tan talks about the time her mother is taken advantage of in the hospital when going for a CAT scan. Tan quotes, “My mother told me she spoke her best English that day. Still, she said the hospital did not apologize when they said they had lost the CAT scan and she had come for nothing” (Tan 344). This quote illustrates the disrespect that was given to Tan’s mother that day, mainly because her English is broken. After this, the author mentions how she came in and talked to the doctors, in “understandable” English, in order to find her mother’s scan, while receiving sympathy. Although, many believe hospitals are a place of healing and fairness, Amy Tan proves this is untrue. The doctors and nurses treated Tan’s mother with ill-respect because of her inability to communicate effectively. By having Amy come in and advocate for her mother and everything was fixed, shows how the workers thought the mother was uneducated. Ironically for them, she reads Forbes daily as well as other high level magazines. Although she is unable to speak in perfect English and may seem as if she doesn’t understand she certainly does.  A 2013 study showed that if a person is not from their same culture, there is a 75% chance they will treat them differently than they would a person of their own culture (Hajnal and Rivera 775). An individual could be saying something very useful and important but because they are difficult to understand, they are not taken seriously. This is a term known as ethnocentrism, which means to evaluate others and their cultures in comparison to your own culture and beliefs. This issue is still a big issue today. In the last half century, the Latino population has surpassed the African Americans as the largest minority, while the white population has dropped from nearly 90% to 65% in the last ten years (Hajnal and Rivera 773). As new cultures and languages enter the United States, our schooling needs to be adjusted. Social norms are changing drastically (Hajnal and Rivera 774). Immigration is on the rise; therefore, the ethnocentrism needs to stop. This can be done by changing the education in schools. With this more diverse country, we still test using the same methods established before the increase. These tests are not giving these multi-racial students a fair opportunity to show what they know. 

The teacher to student relationship differs between minority and non-minority students. Amy Tan discusses this controversial issue from her personal experiences. She tells readers that her teachers would tell her that math and science were her areas of focus and she shouldn’t concentrate much on English. Her teachers spent less time helping her in subjects she needed to be taught in. Instead, they forced her to put all her efforts into what she is “supposed” to be good in. Stereotypically, non-English household students excel in math and science. Tan says, “Why are so few Asian Americans enrolled in creative writing programs? Why do so many Chinese students go into engineering?! And perhaps they also have teachers who are steering them away from writing and into math and science, which happened to me” (Tan 346). This quote is very powerful. It shows how Tan feels about teachers and the roles they can play in students’ like hers, lives. A study was done in 1986 by Carla M. Trujillo comparing the classroom interactions between professors and students of different race. This study revealed that teachers have lower expectations for minority students, which means overall teachers spend less time engaging with them in order to help the more promising kids (Trujillo 640). As stated in the findings, “Even with limitations of the study taken into consideration, the results of this investigation support the exists of differential treatment of minority students by professional educators” (Trujillo 641). The story by Amy Tan was based on the year 1889, just three years after this study has been taken. Relating back to the text, Amy Tan proves the outcome of this study to be true based on the interactions she faced with her teachers. How is a minority student supposed to excel in the English section on a standardized test if all their efforts are in math and science? It’s a trick question. Students who grow up in non-English speaking households experience these obstacles when trying to learn. In Amy Tan’s case, she had to deal with constant ridicule when telling others, she didn’t want to be a doctor, but instead a writer. She discovered this in college, when she was past her days of taking standardized testing. The experiences of Tan and the 1986 study proves how testing is unfair to the non-English raised students because of the lack of teaching in those areas where help is needed.     

The adventures of Amy Tan in the story, “Mother Tongue”, creates and defines the argument that standardized tests are unfair to students raised in non-English speaking households.  The stereotypes of minority cultures are impactful in schools, larger institutions and personal situations. Tan lived this when advocating for her mother in the hospital, as well as seeing how differently teachers interacted with her compared to her classmates. Amy is an exceptional role model in breaking stereotypes by being a writer, which is unlike her Chinese culture. It is not common, but it can be done. Amy Tan’s story illustrates the hurdles of students raised in non-English households, because she lived it and can explain everything first-hand.   
