I'm not advocate of political correctness but "oriental" has been deprecated more than for any other reason because it sounds like "ornamental." Yer me pal and I'm not trying to shape your speech but yours is the first use of this word for Asians I've encountered in a quarter century (I'm not clear why we call them "Asians" even when their ancestors came to the USA in the 1840s to build railroads ... nine generations later they still speak Toisan at home).

I had forgotten the extent to which Gould's book is a rebuttal to Murray's. I read it a long time ago. Patience. It gets better. Gould was brilliant, pity he isn't still with us, he died at 61 looking quite elderly.

In the USA we went to visit some friends of my partner. Saturday night and the kids, grade and middle school, are all at the dining room table studying. Not at the mall, not on the computer. And not being forced. Here in Vietnam high school ("secondary" here) goes through integral calculus. But a lot of them leave early to work for their families or start drinking beer.