I recently saw my mother reading Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chau. She told me, "I try to be your friend...and you know how much I try to understand you. I let you make your own decisions and don't intervene much in you life, do I? And I do believe that I brought you up just fine. This woman, Amy Chau, is interesting. Google her in your spare time, will you? And tell me what you think of her education philosophy." So, I googled her up and found an article, "Why et Mothers are Superior" in the Wall Street Journal. Amy Chau provides readers with extreme views on child education in her article. In general, I do not agree that the extreme Asian way of raising children is superior in all cases.
Amy Chau believes that the parents should have complete control of a child’s life. This, I believe, is actually detrimental to children in the long run. If parents continue to override children’s preferences, children will become overly dependent on their parents and will not be able to make decisions for themselves. For example, my middle school was a dormitory school so students were separated from their parents. Some of my peers’ mothers previously always supervised them and made them study continuously. This was effective in the short-run because my peers received good grades and got accepted into the school. However, in the dormitory school, the mothers who observed every action of their children were not there anymore. As a result, my classmates with parents who controlled their lives reveled in the freedom of choice and chose to play computer games, and sleep in class - indulging themselves to the luxuries they were deprived of. This led to mediocre grades. The shocked mothers made the children drop out of the dormitory school so they could supervise their children again. If this cycle continues, children will not be able to choose the right path when they eventually go to college and then out into society...and parents will be not be able to do anything about it.
So, in my opinion, controlling children is actually harmful in the long run. If children are to survive without the help of their parents, they should be able to make their own decisions and discover the joy of learning. Of course, I am not saying that parents should make kids do whatever they want. Parents should just be their guides and not their dictators. Parents should not be leading the way of their children's paths to the future, but rather be walking a few steps behind them, always there to give their children a gentle nudge here and there when they stray too far from the pathway. So, thanks, Mom for being my friend and not my dictator...and I must say, you did bring your daughter up just fine.:)
Very nice post. Writing for the sake or writing, or this for a class? I know who Amy Chau is, she's been called "Dragon Mom" in the media. In my opinion, she's a product of that system and think of herself as an ideal model representing it. Maybe for her it worked out, and maybe some people respond well under that kind of Shawshank-style existence. But ultimately, I think Amy Chau is an opportunist who simply wants to sell books. In America, the land of opportunity, all one has to do is adopt an extreme view and then write about it with slight skill, and then you have yourself some degree of fame and publicity. America is in a state of self questioning due to the sinking economy, and they are also fearful of China's rise. So Chau has taken advantage of that, and for all we know she doesn't really believe half of what she writes. Anyways, nice post, and I agree with you completely.
ReplyDeleteThis is actually just writing for the sake of writing. My mom got me interested in her and I guess I wanted to express some of my opinions:)
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