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Why American Mothers are Superior

thejuliagroup.com

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Re: Why American Mothers are Superior

#3
I'm convinced the original article by the Chinese mother was some kind of satire. I simply can't believe a reasonably intelligent person (a Yale prof!) can write that with a straight face-- the bit about not letting kids participate in school plays takes the cake.

Re: Why American Mothers are Superior

#5
post #3

I'm convinced the original article by the Chinese mother was some kind of satire. I simply can't believe a reasonably intelligent person (a Yale prof!) can write that with a straight face-- the bit about not letting kids participate in school plays takes the cake.

Three things to note:

  o Amy Chua did not come up with the Title of the WSJ article.

  o The WSJ went out of their way to string the most controversial elements.  
    Think of it as LinkBaiting..  They certainly got a lot of attention.  

  o The actual book is much more nuanced, and, to some degree, 
   comes to different conclusions than the article about the true 
   nature of parenthood.
I've spent quite a bit of time reading the reviews, and snips from the book, and have come to the conclusion that the WSJ editors, indeed, did a great job of writing a satirical review of that style of parenting. The high level of conversation certainly demonstrates that they accomplished their mission.

See Jeff Yang's Great Review of the "True Story" behind the "Chinese Mother" essay at http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/01/13/...

Re: Why American Mothers are Superior

#6
post #3

I'm convinced the original article by the Chinese mother was some kind of satire. I simply can't believe a reasonably intelligent person (a Yale prof!) can write that with a straight face-- the bit about not letting kids participate in school plays takes the cake.

Three things to note: o Amy Chua did not come up with the Title of the WSJ article. o The WSJ went out of their way to string the most controversial elements. Think of it as LinkBaiting.. They certainly got a lot of attention. o The actual book is much more nuanced, and, to some degree, comes to different conclusions than the article about the true nature of parenthood. I've spent quite a bit of time reading the revi…

Yes, this rebuttal article is horrible. Somone with a PhD, presumably a researcher, should have read the source material (Amy's book).

Re: Why American Mothers are Superior

#7
post #3

I'm convinced the original article by the Chinese mother was some kind of satire. I simply can't believe a reasonably intelligent person (a Yale prof!) can write that with a straight face-- the bit about not letting kids participate in school plays takes the cake.

Of course it's trolling, but people respond seriously because (apparently) this style of parenting is common.

Re: Why American Mothers are Superior

#8

It reads like we're having a child-off between exceptionally gifted Chinese children, and exceptionally gifted American children. What about normal children? I'd love to see these anecdotes turned into evidence.

I was going to say! Most parents would be overjoyed if just one of their children or even grandchildren turned out like this.

Re: Why American Mothers are Superior

#10

It reads like we're having a child-off between exceptionally gifted Chinese children, and exceptionally gifted American children. What about normal children? I'd love to see these anecdotes turned into evidence.

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/01/22/17-gifted-childre...
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