"They're smart, they're overachievers, and they're bound to take over your school's orchestra."

And with that, Laya Rajan began an editorial in her school newspaper in Yorktown called "The Asian Mystique."

Rajan, whose family is from India, tackled what she described as the wealth of stereotypes about Asians, from intelligence to athletic abilities, and wrote: "From an Asian perspective, here is the truth behind the veil."

Rajan is 14, a student at Yorktown High School, and this was an ambitious topic that she handled with humor. (And well enough to place in The Journal News' high school journalism contest in the spring for which I was one of the judges.)

It is always good to see someone take on stereotypes with their mixture of truth and exaggeration and just plain falsehoods. Stereotypes can make you laugh: Think of a stand-up comic's routine. Or they can fuel the worst hatred and discrimination.

Stereotypes about Asians have centered on the notion of the model minority and here's how Cuong Nguyen Le, a visiting assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, describes it on his Web site, Asian-Nation.org:

"The image many have of Asian Americans is that we are the 'model minority' - a bright, shining example of hard work and patience whose example other minority groups should follow. However, the practical reality is slightly more complicated than that."

And he goes on to also take apart stereotypes.

Asian-Americans have done exceptionally well socially and economically, he writes. Data from the 2000 census show Asian- Americans outperforming the country's other major racial and ethnic groups by various measurements, from the number of college and advanced degrees to median family income and the skill of their occupations.

But look below the surface, he cautions, at education levels, for example. Vietnamese-Americans earn college degrees at less than half the rate of other Asian-Americans, and the rates for Laotians, Cambodians and Khmer are even lower.

Take median family incomes. Asian-Americans fare well in most cases because typically, four, five or more members of a family will be working, he writes. A more telling statistic, he writes, is per- capita income and there Asian- Americans trail white Americans.

Rajan wrote of her grandparents that they were in their 20s at the time of India's independence and working hard to support their families, and of her parents that they understood that education was their path to a better life.

"There are over two BILLION people on the Asian continent itself, not including the millions of people of Asian descent elsewhere," she wrote. "Every single one cannot be, and certainly is not, brilliant."

To understand academic achievement among young Asian- Americans, she said, look to their upbringing, not their genes. Her parents encourage her in her studies.

"I've also tried just about everything under the sun," she wrote. "Dance, check. Singing, check. Instruments of all descriptions, yup. Gymnastics, swimming, ice skating, horseback riding. You name it, I've done it."

Not that her parents thought that they were raising the next Yo-Yo Ma or Nadia Comaneci, she wrote. They just wanted her to have every possible opportunity.

And so this weekend, Rayan will perform classical Indian dance as part of a show that will benefit two groups in Westchester: the children's department of the Field Library in Peekskill and P.S. We Care, a substance-abuse prevention program in Yorktown.

Rajan, who has been dancing since she was 4 years old, has studied two styles: Bharatanatyam and Odissi.

"It is part of my heritage," she said. "My grandmother and my mom danced so they wanted me to learn as well. That's how I started. And then once we got past the basics I found that I loved it so much that I continued on my own."

Dance in general, she said, gives you a release from your ordinary life. Classical Indian dance is a spiritual form that portrays stories as simple as a child playing to ones as complex as Indian mythology.

"For me, it's about physical well- being, but also it just refreshes your mind and your soul," Rajan said. "It's a lot of fun. And I feel that I've learned more about my culture and myself in the process."

She has taught others as well. She has led four- to six-week workshops in Peekskill for children, and on Saturday, with three other dancers, she will raise money for the community groups.

Without stereotypes.

Reach Noreen O'Donnell at nodonnel@lohud.com or 914-694-5107. Read her blog, "And Another Thing," at odonnell.lohudblogs.com.

If you go

What: "Joy: a Celebration in Dance"

When: 2 and 7 p.m. Saturday

Where: Yorktown Stage, 1974 Commerce St., Yorktown Heights.

Who: Dance Against Drugs, a dance company that will feature Indian classical dance, flamenco, modern American dance and ballet.

Tickets: $15 a person; $30 for a family of four. Call 914-962-9815. Also available at Peekskill's Field Library.

The show will benefit P.S. We Care, Yorktown's substance- abuse prevention program, and the children's department of Peekskill's Field Library.

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