yeah, but would i want her as a mother?

.

i have always been awed by women like amy chua.  at 48, this ivy-league magna cum laude graduate has managed to become a full professor at the top law school in the country, write two critically-acclaimed books on geopolitics, maintain a home and husband and raise two "perfect" children--all while remaining thin and gorgeous.

the true magnitude of this accomplishment only became clear when the lengths to which she went to ensure the perfection of said children was revealed last week in a wall street journal excerpt from her new book--i mean, when you dedicate yourself to the full-time task of making your kids' lives a living hell, how could you possibly have time for all that other shit?

well, she pulls it off--the article, modestly titled why chinese mothers are superior, is a must-read for not only you, my four readers, but every half-assed parent in america whose precious high-school graduate can't find his own ass with both hands.
 
there are so many pull quotes i hardly know where to start, but here are my favorites:

Here are some things my daughters, Sophia and Louisa, were never allowed to do:

• 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.

sounds bleak, huh?  yeah, i thought so, too.  but wait, there's more:

If a Chinese child gets a B—which would never happen—there would first be a screaming, hair-tearing explosion. The devastated Chinese mother would then get dozens, maybe hundreds of practice tests and work through them with her child for as long as it takes to get the grade up to an A.

wow.  how much more antithetical to the ethos of today's typical american parent--whose fear of their childrens' wrath seemingly overrides any prediliction for strictness on their part--could that be?

What Chinese parents understand is that nothing is fun until you're good at it. To get good at anything you have to work, and children on their own never want to work, which is why it is crucial to override their preferences.

but what about damage to the child's precious self-esteem?

Western parents are concerned about their children's psyches. Chinese parents aren't. They assume strength, not fragility, and as a result they behave very differently.

and finally, the money quote (for me, anyway):

[M]any Chinese secretly believe that they care more about their children and are willing to sacrifice much more for them than Westerners, who seem perfectly content to let their children turn out badly.

and that really is the bottom line.

the stereotype has always been that the asians produce scholastically-excellent conformists, whereas the american educational system produces the sort of creative individualists who made this country great.

yeah, keep telling yourselves that, america--maybe if you repeat it often enough, it'll still be true.

if ms. chua's (and, by extension, her culture's) child-rearing methods seem extreme to you (and even to me)?  well, they probably are.  but i bet your grandparents wouldn't have thought so.

seriously, read the article--it is a tour de force of irony, self-awareness and hard truth.