Recently, the book “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother” received mixed reviews. Many Americans are bashing the Eastern parenting style, and many are praising it. This particular review is mixed and indicated that perhaps both the Eastern and Western parenting styles need to integrate. I agree with this particular reviewer. At first, I was skeptical as to whether the book was really an East vs. West difference or just this particular mother. After reading a few different reviews it seems as if critics and the Tiger mother herself agree that this is a common parenting style among Asian parents. Regardless, I am still skeptical of this book and by no means am I using it as the soul explanation for Asian success. I just thought it would be an interesting talking point given the book has gotten so much media attention lately. After reading Marger’s chapter on Asian Americans my eyes were opened up to the true magnitude of their scholastic and professional achievements (although Asian Americans do have a higher poverty rate than whites—I am going to try to research this and post about it this week). I do not believe that any race is genetically superior to another; therefore, I cannot help but credit the achievements of Asian Americans to their different form of child rearing. I tried to look up other factors that may account for the success of Asian Americans, but I came across very little and nothing substantial. I am by no means indicating that this book represents all Asian parents. I took the excerpts and reviews I read with a grain of salt, and yes, I know it is a generalization. I just thought it was interesting when reading the statistics in Marger’s chapter about American Asian success. I could not help but correlate success with parenting and childhood. Does anyone agree or disagree with child-rearing (good or bad) as a main component to success?
http://mineola.patch.com/articles/declawing-a-tiger-mother
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=resources/lifestyle_community&id=7964855
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