Author and Yale Law School Professor, Amy Chua
To Chua, a lot of Western parents are too wrapped up with not hurting their children’s feelings or crushing their kids’ self-esteem.
You want to be offended by the title of the article, but then once you read it, Chua’s definition of a “Chinese mother” is really just a strict parent with high standards. Chua seems to be someone who demands that her children not only do their best, but that they are the best among their peers. The kids practice themselves into excellence/mastery. If Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hours theory (Basically that it takes 10,000 hours of doing something to master it) is correct, Chua may be on to something. ...
In a Wall Street Journal piece entitled “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior,” author and Yale Law School professor Amy Chua breaks down why Chinese parents tend to raise such “stereotypically successful” children who excel at pretty much everything they touch, especially in comparison to coddled Western children whose parents are worried about their self-esteem. The essay is an excerpt from her upcoming book “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.”
Chua notes that she is using the term “Chinese mother” pretty loosely and that she knows some Korean, Irish, Jamaican, Indian and Ghanian parents who fit the bill too. So what’s a “Chinese Mother”? According to Chua, a Chinese mother is someone who demands only the very best from her child at all times. Anything less than outstanding is not acceptable. Not achieving a goal is due to not working hard enough, not some hard-wired inability to complete a task.
The fact that different races or cultures have different parenting models is no secret. How many times have you heard jokes about some hapless white woman threatening to put little Billy in timeout while he punches her in the gut in the middle of the toy store? The follow-up to such a tale is always a traumatic event from the storyteller’s past that involves an electrical cord, a surprise backhand or some other physical assault that by today’s standards might be a child protective services case.
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Posted By: Jen Fad
Saturday, January 8th 2011 at 6:43PM
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