My kids have never attended test prep centers nor do I intend to send them (mostly because I am too lazy to drive), but I will never fault parents who find them to be helpful. I personally see no benefit in attending those centers, but maybe other parents are under the (false) assumption that test scores matter most, or maybe they believe that Asians are at a disadvantage, so they are attempting to give their kid every advantage possible. Plus, I thought the general advice on CC is that it is ill-advised to sit for SATs without some prep. Is it wrong to go to a prep center if you don’t have the discipline to do it yourself? Anyway, more power to 'em if parents are able to get their kids to the centers and even more power to 'em if they are able to get the kids to do the work and to get the desired scores. I’m also assuming that even if the initial intention for attending the centers is to get higher scores, a natural by product of all that studying is more learning. And that is a good thing.
All my kids have done scouting, but I would never presume that activities in those sanctioned organizations are any more virtuous than what others may engage in. Many of my kids’ Asian friends are heavily involved in church. They’re weekends are spent doing church activities which I assume involve a lot of community service. And outsiders may not think it virtuous, but there is a lot of giving, cooperation and volunteering within the Asian communities. Plus, if we are doing out jobs as parents, we are raising our kids to be kind and compassionate. So maybe our overbooked kids don’t have time to engage in such civic activities as high schoolers, but it doesn’t preclude them from doing it later.