Analyzing Amy Chua's Essay Why Chinese Mothers are Superior
Amy Chua, Why Chinese Mothers are Superior
As a young adult raised in a Chinese family, my experiences with my parents are drastically different compared to parenting style Amy Chua suggests. In her essay "Why Chinese Mothers aresuperior" Chua explains that being strict can help her children become "successful", has a positive impact for them, and is a better method for raising a child. Chua believes that Western parents are too free with compliments, and easily let a child give up on tasks they finds difficult; she furthermore states that her unyielding standards are good for her children because she knows her children can meet the standards. Chua's essay fails to define a “successful” child and uses ineffective examples to show superiority over the Western parents.
The piano story Chua uses in her essay is not strong enough to validate "nothing is fun until you're good at it" for every child. The example she provides does, in fact, show her daughter Lulu was enjoying the piano piece after mastering it, but sometimes it's also fun to do things you don't do well in. While Chua stresses so much on making her daughter master her piano skills, she, as a mother, fails to unlock her daughter's potential talent and interests. When a parent forces a child to perform perfection in a particular task, instead of enjoying the performance, the parent dilutes the true purpose of the task. My parents often suggest me to try out different activities in school to see what my interests are because they believe that motivation within me is stronger than anything they can say. Children often lose track of their interests with their mandatory after school activities because children don't know better and parents know everything; do parents really know everything?
According to Chua, she knows what's best for her children and should "override" any wants and desires from her children for their own good. To an extent I do agree with Chua's point, but I must disagree on the fact
As a young adult raised in a Chinese family, my experiences with my parents are drastically different compared to parenting style Amy Chua suggests. In her essay "Why Chinese Mothers aresuperior" Chua explains that being strict can help her children become "successful", has a positive impact for them, and is a better method for raising a child. Chua believes that Western parents are too free with compliments, and easily let a child give up on tasks they finds difficult; she furthermore states that her unyielding standards are good for her children because she knows her children can meet the standards. Chua's essay fails to define a “successful” child and uses ineffective examples to show superiority over the Western parents.
The piano story Chua uses in her essay is not strong enough to validate "nothing is fun until you're good at it" for every child. The example she provides does, in fact, show her daughter Lulu was enjoying the piano piece after mastering it, but sometimes it's also fun to do things you don't do well in. While Chua stresses so much on making her daughter master her piano skills, she, as a mother, fails to unlock her daughter's potential talent and interests. When a parent forces a child to perform perfection in a particular task, instead of enjoying the performance, the parent dilutes the true purpose of the task. My parents often suggest me to try out different activities in school to see what my interests are because they believe that motivation within me is stronger than anything they can say. Children often lose track of their interests with their mandatory after school activities because children don't know better and parents know everything; do parents really know everything?
According to Chua, she knows what's best for her children and should "override" any wants and desires from her children for their own good. To an extent I do agree with Chua's point, but I must disagree on the fact