Monday, January 17, 2011
Tiger Mom—trending on Twitter, but dead in Hawaii?
by Larry Geller
Have you been following the “Tiger Mom” controversy as it swirls through the social media?
For a “tiger mom,” 95% on a school quiz isn’t good enough. Perfection is almost brutally enforced. Supposedly, this produces successful kids.
Would it even work in Hawaii, where schools are considered mediocre at best? And would parents become “tiger moms” if it meant that their successful children would have to leave Hawaii when they graduate, which is what being successful most often means here, since the jobs will be on the Mainland?
It all started with a Wall Street Journal excerpt from Amy Chua’s new book, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.
Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior
Can a regimen of no playdates, no TV, no computer games and hours of music practice create happy kids? And what happens when they fight back?[Wall Street Journal, 1/8/2011]
The issue is not really happy kids, but the supposed ability of Chinese mothers to produce successful kids. Chua’s recommendations go far beyond anything you may have read in that authoritarian child rearing advice column in the morning paper.
Anyway, it’s all over Twitter and everywhere else. Just now Tiger Mom has about 129,000 hits on Google.
I liked the two articles on The Faster Times website below, but if you’re interested in the subject, there is plenty of commentary out there.
Grown Up Kids: The Tiger Mom and Me
Indian Culture: Tiger Mama? More like Tiger Society
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