"I don't think there's any doubt these kids will be successful in whatever they choose to do."
Based on what? Academic performance through high school? The ability to play the piano? Are these really good predictors of success?
Based on what? Academic performance through high school? The ability to play the piano? Are these really good predictors of success?
That's how I felt as a Chinese kid growing up anyways - there are a fuckton of things that your parents will force upon you that seem arbitrary, boring, or downright aggravating, but you have to power through it anyways and still give 100%. Or else. This has proven to be useful in the long run for me.
It's not entirely without negative consequences, though. What is traditionally deemed "useful" in a Chinese family can be extremely limiting. I spent the better part of college learning social cues and human interaction that I honestly should've picked up by age 12, and my folks weren't nearly quite as restrictive as Tiger Mom herself!
Even now I'm just starting to explore the arts and my own creativity - something that has basically been trained out of me since birth. It's tough going.
IMHO the stereotypical Chinese family optimizes its success metric in a very limiting way: money. If you follow Tiger Mom's formula, you are probably going to end up with a stable, high-income job, but are going to end up emotionally pretty miserable. As a Chinese immigrant it's something I've seen again and again far too often in my own community.
I can't speak for all Chinese, but having been raised in a Tiger-Mom-esque way, and enjoyed the fruits of its success, I find that I'm spending a large portion of my income these days fixing what my upbringing broke.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/18/opinion/18brooks.html
I found it pretty interesting, and it's contributed to my growing respect for Brooks.