Monday, January 10, 2011

Chinese mom gives piano lessons

Parenting practices seem to vary from one culture to another. Yale law professor Amy Chua brags about her parenting in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, and plugging her new book on the subject:
Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior

A lot of people wonder how Chinese parents raise such stereotypically successful kids. They wonder what these parents do to produce so many math whizzes and music prodigies, what it's like inside the family, and whether they could do it too. Well, I can tell them, because I've done it. ...

Back at the piano, Lulu made me pay. She punched, thrashed and kicked. She grabbed the music score and tore it to shreds. I taped the score back together and encased it in a plastic shield so that it could never be destroyed again. Then I hauled Lulu's dollhouse to the car and told her I'd donate it to the Salvation Army piece by piece if she didn't have "The Little White Donkey" perfect by the next day. When Lulu said, "I thought you were going to the Salvation Army, why are you still here?" I threatened her with no lunch, no dinner, no Christmas or Hanukkah presents, no birthday parties for two, three, four years. When she still kept playing it wrong, I told her she was purposely working herself into a frenzy because she was secretly afraid she couldn't do it. I told her to stop being lazy, cowardly, self-indulgent and pathetic.
I hate to think what would happen if the local family court appointed the local gay shrink to evaluate this mom, or if the local CPS investigated her. She is not doing what I would do, but no one should interfere unless they can prove that she is doing something harmful.

Before you adopt this Chinese mom's methods, you might want to read the comments of those who have contrary experiences. Some of them are very disturbing.

Chua is married to an Orthodox Jew, and has not taken his name. Her new book, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, recommends saying this to a daughter practicing the piano:
If the next time's not PERFECT, I'm going to take all your stuffed animals and burn them!"
Wow, that is worse than the worst thing that I have been accused of, and the family court has taken away my kids for three years.

3 comments:

namae nanka said...

But you are a man, a proxy of the patriarchal network...

Anonymous said...

give me and the rest of us a break from the useless and meaningless uber-feminist rhetoric. If you've something useful to contribute in a civil and at least somewhat thoughtful fashion, please do so. There's been too much drivel spewed here though it does seem to be getting better.

Anonymous said...

...if you were being ironic my apologies btw.....