In the last few weeks much of the blogosphere has been reacting and weighing in on of Amy Chua’s book, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, featured in an article in the Wall Street Journal.
Chua’s book is subtitled, “This is a story about a mother, two daughters, and two dogs. This was supposed to be a story of how Chinese parents are better at raising kids than Western ones. But instead, it’s about a bitter clash of cultures, a fleeting taste of glory, and how I was humbled by a thirteen-year-old.” Battle Hymn is a memoir of Chua’s life as a Chinese-American mother, married to a non-Chinese husband, managing their family’s child rearing according to traditional, and strict, Chinese methods. Among the rules imposed upon Chua’s daughters were the following no-no’s:
- attend a sleepover
- have a playdate
- be in a school play
- complain about not being in a school play
- watch TV or play computer games
- choose their own extracurricular activities
- get any grade less than an A
- not be the No. 1 student in every subject except gym and drama
- play any instrument other than the piano or violin
- not play the piano or violin.
NCGS member school Holton-Arms head of school Susanna Jones weighs in:
“I think Chua is trying to deliver a more complex—perhaps even conflicted—message than simply the superiority of her parenting methods. Indeed, the cover of the book and the frontispiece represent her story much better: This was supposed to be a story of how Chinese parents are better at raising kids than Western ones. But instead, it’s about a bitter clash of cultures, a fleeting taste of glory, and how I was humbled by a 13-year-old.
Reading that, I thought, this is a very different story—’bitter clash’ and ‘humbled’ are not words of triumph. The book is very readable, and certainly as parents, her story draws us in, whether to quote ABC reporter Juju Chang, we are ‘repulsed or completely jealous.’”
Continue reading Susanna’s blog.
