1 Comment

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  Hong - 13 years ago

  From what Sophia wrote, we know that the strictness and harshness of the education by "Tiger Mother" was somehow exaggerated. I grew up in China and received a PhD. degree in the USA. We are raising our daughter, a 6th grader in the USA. As I know, Chinese parents in the USA put much more efforts in their kits' education than the Americans on average, and Chinese kids in USA perform considerably better than American kids on average. We aim to achieve balanced education, not only academic and arts, but social studies and leadership (although the later is somehow less successful due to limits in the parents' cultural background). Most Chinese parents believe that the American parents are two permissive, allowing their kids wasting too much time on games and TVs, making them less prepared for the future. These American kids may be happy as kids, but will suffer more when they grow up. Children can bear more pressure than most Americans think, as long as the parents keep encouraging them and not pushing too much. We believe that kids are very plastic, and it is the education that makes the difference (although the gene is sure important). We received stricter education in China as kids many years ago, but few of us have psychological problems. In contrast, many Americans have psychological problems. As a scientist, I believe that moderate levels of stress at childhood make children stronger and can stand more pressure at adulthood, which is an analogy of hormesis in biology. It is worthy to mention that Chinese, Korean, and Japanese culture are very similar, and these three countries are leading the world in many aspects. In summary, an Asian-based education system, balanced by some Western values, is superior in preparing our kids for the future real world, both academically and psychologically.