There’s one thing that’s clear. Despite Western squeamishness about stereotypes and whatnot, it’s clear: Asian children are out-achieving American children, both in Asia and in the United States. Asians work harder, are more gifted musically, and generally achieve out of proportion to their percentage in the US, and it’s all thanks to the parents. Take a lesson from Asia: Chinese children achieve because Chinese parents make them achieve, or else.
Here’s the gist of the article, as summed up by Chinese mother Amy Chua herself:
In one study of 50 Western American mothers and 48 Chinese immigrant mothers, almost 70% of the Western mothers said either that “stressing academic success is not good for children” or that “parents need to foster the idea that learning is fun.” By contrast, roughly 0% of the Chinese mothers felt the same way. Instead, the vast majority of the Chinese mothers said that they believe their children can be “the best” students, that “academic achievement reflects successful parenting,” and that if children did not excel at school then there was “a problem” and parents “were not doing their job.” Other studies indicate that compared to Western parents, Chinese parents spend approximately 10 times as long every day drilling academic activities with their children. By contrast, Western kids are more likely to participate in sports teams.
If you want your child to be successful, stop being a wuss and start being a real parent. If you want to make your kid a success, you have to teach them that hard work is how you become successful. There’s no magic panacea of success, just working your fingers to the bone, day in and day out, for hours at a time until you’re able to play the piano or juggle or kill a man with your big toe.
Tags: parenting, parents, parenting styles, Chinese parents versus American parents, Chinese mother, Asian parenting styles, parenting styles for children, raising children, how to raise a successful child, hard work and children, unusual surveys, parental styles