Sunday, January 30, 2011

Amy Chua’s ‘Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother’ - Review - NYTimes.com

Now, Amy Chua’s new book doesn’t really have anything to do with the Class of 1987 . . . except that many of us are raising children.  I wonder how many of us are Tiger Mothers or Tiger Fathers, the way Amy Chua has defined these roles.  Or, are we the softer, Westernized parents she chides? 

I wonder, as we shuttle our children from lesson to lesson, whether we are kindler, gentler versions of the driven mother Chua describes herself to be, or whether we are something different.  Most of the people I discussed this with rejected what they understood Chua to be advocating.  However, as I read her book (sitting at a swim meet and a chess tournament), I wondered.  We want our children to succeed and we encourage them to do well (very well) in school.  In fact, we expect it.  Is that so very different from what Chua says she wants for her children?

What kind of parent are you?

Amy Chua’s ‘Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother’ - Review - NYTimes.com

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