Tag Archives: Amy Chua

[Most of the AA Blogosphere has been angry and incensed at Amy Chua's article about Chinese-style parenting.  I got hold of someone with a different take on the whole debate.  Printed with permission; read it below, and feel free to comment. --B]

Initially I was incensed at the audacity of Professor Chua’s article, “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior” and what seemed to be the proposition: exercise totalitarianism over your children if you want them to become high-achieving good Samaritans; use negative reinforcement as the primary instrument in aforesaid method of parenting. Because that in a nutshell was my childhood and adolescence, an aspect of my past that brings up less than idyllic memories, and reminds me of the parental governance I viciously defied. In fact, Chua’s article brought up stories of trauma I don’t even remember.