Retreat of the ‘tiger mother’

   After her controversial article was published, Chua receives many criticizes via e-mail or comments on the newspaper’s Web site. As this article mentions, Chua is just writing a memoir rather than parenting guide, so I think people shouldn’t judge her so harshly. Every household has different methods of raising children, and some are more kind, some are more demanding on academic achievement. In addition, she is just writing her own story, people really don’t have to be so overreacted. Instead, people should just use the attitude of reading a novel to treat Amy Chua’s book. When Amy Chua said that her real crime is telling the truth, and people are not that honest about their parenting, I feel this is so true. How many parents can say they’re perfect that they have no fight with their children ever? I’ve never heard of and I think it’s impossible for not having any conflict with family members. Although Amy Chua’s parenting method might sometime be too excess, her children are thankful toward the way that Chua uses. As long as her children didn’t result in depression or unhappiness, other people really don’t have the right to say that Amy Chua is a “tiger mother.’

Why Chinese Mothers Are Not Superior

   To most Asian parents, grade is the most important thing to them. They expect their children to achieve high in academics, and care less about extracurricular activities. I totally agree with the author that this kind of parenting is only a short term success because children aren’t given enough freedom to search for themselves. After graduating from college, our roles transform from students to employees. Having been only studying school subjects for such a long time, it’s hard for Asian children to find where their interests are at first few times. We’ll definitely make many mistakes before finding jobs that we really want and that are truly suitable for us. Defining success doesn’t necessarily limited to meanings of studying in prestigious schools, working in high positions in large companies, and earning lots of money. Rather, I think that achieving success is accomplishing one’s goal in one’s specialized area. Although these areas might be small or unnoticeable, as long as people are satisfied with their doings and lived enjoyable and happy lives, I think that’s called success.

Why Chinese Mothers are Superior

   I think this article portrays the difference in parenting model of Western and Chinese parents really true. In Chinese culture, parents and schools only focus on children’s academic performance rather than extracurricular activities. When schools end, we directly go to cram school so that we are capable of competing with others, thus making both parents and teachers proud. Also, parents would try to let children to cram for all subjects, which is just like what the article mentions: Chinese parents would sacrifice everything for their children’s future. In contrast, Western culture’s teaching method varies greatly from that of Chinese. Western parents want their children to have as many extracurricular activities, to join as many clubs as possible. Parents simply want their kids to enjoy the fun social life rather than always studying like nerds. In addition, Western parents would use more encouraging language when seeing their children don’t perform that well academically because they’re afraid of hurting children’s self-esteem. Unlike Western parents, Chinese parents tend to use insulting, harsh language to try to motivate their children to excel to a better level or achieve what they expect of their children to do. However, I don’t really agree with this kind of method because I think this would only cause drawback.