Amy Chua and daughter
Marcus T Anthony's new web site and blog can be found at: www.mind-futures.com.
I first went to teach in a cram school in Taiwan in 1999. The school was for preschoolers and primary aged students (3-7 year olds). Not long after I arrived, I was party to a conversation with Jean, the 40 year-old school director, and a another western teacher. Jean was a real tough task master, a typical “Chinese” mother who believed that drilling kids and working them as hard as possible was absolutely necessary to raise successful children. On that day I heard Jean commenting about the parents of a child from another school, whom she found “really strange”. Apparently those parents let the child do “whatever it felt like doing.” “They are just too strange”, she kept repeating.
I’ll never forget that, because Jean’s views on raising children are very different from mine. IAs a long-time teacher I know how important it is to believe it is exercise discipline, but it is equally important to teach kids autonomy and the capacity to sense what is right for themselves. The reason I bring this little incident up is because I was reminded of it by something which appeared in the media these past few days.
Chinese-American mother Amy Chua created a genuine stir this week when she penned an article entitled “Why Chinese mothers are superior”, for the New York Times, and detailing what she believes is the ideal parenting style. She calls it “Chinese parenting”.
Amy Chua is a professor at Yale Law School and author of several books, including Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. The book covers the same subject area as the article.
To say that Chua is a strict parent would be the understatement of the millennium. Her daughters Sophia and Louisa are carefully parented – some might say micromanaged. They are never allowed to do:
• attend a sleepover
• have a playdate
• be in a school play
• complain about not being in a school play
• watch TV or play computer games
• choose their own extracurricular activities
• get any grade less than an A
• not be the No. 1 student in every subject except gym and drama
• play any instrument other than the piano or violin
• not play the piano or violin. Click below to read more....
