It has been astounding to me to see how the whole “Tiger Mother” furore has erupted in America, considering that the original text is so flawed. To be the cover story on Time magazine?
My first issue with the Amy Chua excerpt that was published in the Wall Street Journal is methodological. Setting aside the question of definitions of success, to extrapolate a whole category of behaviour by an ethnic group (which may or may not be an ethnic group, seeing how she fudges her definition of “Chinese” mothers) from anecdotal data is completely ridiculous. Having come from Chinese parents myself, I could state just as confidently from my 1-family sample that Chinese mothers are loving, supportive, and always listen to the child and give him the space he needs to grow. And that confidence would be misplaced.
The next concern is sociological. I fear that the Amy Chua article reinforces stereotypes of Asian education, and specifically that of Singapore’s. I worry about promulgating the idea that somehow what all Asian parents want out of their children are automatons who do well in school through rote learning, and that that must be the cause of Singapore’s good math and science testing scores. As anyone here in America doing “Singapore Math” knows, we hardly have a rote curriculum for math. Based on what I saw and knew of my mother’s lifelong work as a teacher and at the Ministry of Education, there’s a lot of thinking that goes on in Singapore about pedagogy, and how we can best reach out to students of all stripes.
So I worry that articles like Chua’s paint all Asian styles of education with a broad brushstroke, when the reality is that the education systems of different countries are quite different. And in that vein I’m proud that Singapore has a system that is moving towards celebrating different modes of success. I’m also struck by the fact that we have invested so many resources in our Institutes for Technical Education (ITE) and polytechnics, to provide quality education for those who do not go to college.
And a final thought: I think I find it most disturbing for people to send around the article with comments like “oh it must be true - I was raised like that and look how I turned out!”. To be in blinkered, unthinking awe of a piece that lacks rigour seems to call into question your intellectual grasp. Which makes me, dare I say it, judge how your parents raised you.