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Parenting Gone Wild: Are Chinese mothers superior at producing Superkids?
- Many parents in the west scout the market for the best books from prenatal care to "my child is forty five and needs my help" books. One of such parents is Amy Chua with her recently released book titled "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother." A book based on Chinese parenting style.
- As I read her article in the Wall street journal, proudly titled "Why Chinese mothers are superior." I was partly amused and partly disturbed to think she really believed what she was preaching, and all I could think of was having a one on one with her. I had my questions handy as I played out the scenario in my head. It would begin with me asking her.
- Do you believe Sophia and Louisa (her daughters) have natural talents or gifts, and do you know what they are? It is hard to believe any mother that picks her children's extracurricular activities has given much thought to this. My next question would be Ms Chua do you really believe the best Sophia and Louisa can be are Piano/violin playing prodigies, with straight As, maybe speaking thirteen different languages and guaranteed admissions to all eight ivy league schools on guaranteed paths to being maybe scientists, doctors, lawyers or whatever professional field you choose for them? To this I would anticipate a worthy answer.
- My final question would be "Since you strongly believe the west parenting skills are so terrible. How come it produces the best products with the most creative and imaginative minds compared to products from those parts of the world that subscribe to your methods?" Then I would go on to say if Walt Disney's mother never encouraged his desire to scribble we won't have the Disney cartoons she so despises and yet I can guarantee the world will know more about Disney than it would about any child brought up following her practices.
- I must admit that not everything she writes in her book is to be condemned, like her attitude towards helping her children form good work habits and pushing them even when they do not want to be. Something western parents could learn to do, but I still believe every child deserves to have some say and the ability to make choices to preserve their individuality.
Related Articles
- Why Chinese mothers are superior - Wall Street Journal
- A Black mother's Response to Amy Chua: We're Tiger Moms, Too
- But will it make "Tiger Mom" happy- NY Times
- Posted by Bolaji Oluwajana, Feb 2nd, 2011
- Read more from her @ http://itchyandcurious.wordpress.com/
