There are excerpts in lots of places, including WSJ, where I read it. What I find most interesting are other people's reactions, especially an African-American perspective on NPR. I'm trying to figure out if any of my students have tiger mothers, or if there's any part of being a tiger mother I could (or should) apply in the classroom/library. Obviously not the part where Amy Chau calls her kids garbage! Nor can I spend hours one-on-one with a child, badgering her into achieving perfection. But maybe the idea of never giving up?
I let my students slide out of finishing work pretty frequently. I give them a mediocre grade because their work is incomplete, but then I move on, because I don't want to keep the class waiting. Would it be better to make that child keep working on step one until she gets it right? It's hard to imagine making one child sit at her desk working on the same thing until it was perfect while other students raced ahead. But I want to be brave enough to do whatever it takes to really teach kids. Not just coach my kids into doing enough work to get them an S on their report card.
Hey Emily, I stumbled upon your blog. It has been way too long since we last talked. I live in Taiwan now and the mothers here are tiger mothers. I can't say if it is positive or negative, but it is so vastly different from Western moms. I think people would be shocked to live and work with these moms and the incredible pressure the children deal with. Children definitely excel here, but usually at the cost of creativity. Rebekah from OR met you at WSS but now lives in TPE
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