Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua.
Okay, so I read (a lot of) the rants and even watched video of a mixed reception at a reading in a Washington, D.C. book store. Saw and read the Time magazine article. Made my kids read it (the article, not the book). When a friend brought a copy to school and offered me first dibs (perks of being a librarian) I couldn't resist.
Moral: don't believe everything you read.
Chua's book was well written (one would hope so from a Yale law professor) and fun to read. Not so much lecture as confession, which was a surprise given the way it's been reviewed. My reaction was not shame at being a permissive, selfish, western parent but rather concern and pity for Chua who struck me as pathological. Pathologically what is a good question that I cannot answer. Insecure? Competitive? Maybe.
Her paranoia about everything from food to dogs (forget about the elephant in the room - the poor kids - for a sec) was almost heartbreaking. My favorite part was when she gets a dog and is so proud of whatever chic pedigree it has until visiting friends casually (?) drop that its breed is not rated highly on intelligence. She cannot wait for them to leave so that she can google the poor animal and check its stats.
Honey, see a shrink! I wish people would stop attacking her and start offering her hugs.
No comments:
Post a Comment