Quinn McNamara
English 1010 F 9:00-12:00
Professor McKeever
November 5, 2012
Word Count:1,017
Chinese Parenting Downfall
Reading Amy Chua’s Why Chinese Mother’s are Superior… I have found fallacies in my opinion. Amy backing the Chinese parenting techniques to be superior to western techniques is false but also has truth to it. I believe raising a healthy, bright, and well-rounded child is dependant on the child, and parents have to accommodate needs to help their child learn. However the best way to teach and help a child learn is by forming a good strong character structure supporting them in what they want to do or achieve. This is done by setting guidelines and ways of invoking ideas to lead the child down the right path to success. The focus of my argument on Chua’s article is centered on the idea that pressuring their child isn’t always or even is the best way for kids to learn as Chinese, Korean, or Asian parents think.
First off I want to get the point across that the parents are the ones who brought the child into this world not the child. Therefore parents need to support them in anyway that meets their child’s needs, building their character in ways that will help them excel. Strict parenting in the way of the Chinese to me is a bit extreme. It’s my opinion; my opinion could be seen as bias due to being raised in the western ways but, in logic pressuring people isn’t always the answer.
In a study by the psychologist Sam Glucksberg at Princeton University he commenced a study showing over pressuring can cause high stress levels and panicking and lead to disruption in the brain causing slower learning. He did this in two very same tests but added a twist to one. The first group of subjects he had sit in a room and gave them materials including thumb tacks, book of matches and the candle and had to make the candle stick to the wall without dripping wax onto a table next to the wall when the wick is lit. The second groups of test subjects were given the same materials as the last. However the second group was giving an incentive of making money depending on how fast they were able to complete the task but have to finish in the top 25%.
After concluding this experiment Professor Glucksberg found that the group with the money incentive on average finished three and a half minutes slower than the group with no incentive. What is noticed is the first group had no added pressure to completing the given task unlike group two. The incentive dulled group two’s creative thinking due to the pressure created through the time span to get the reward. The thing to this is one’s brain has many different learning processing center s and falter under certain amount of pressure. “Chinese methods” of learning induce heavy amounts of pressure to the child. Although some may be able to handle it others cant and create added stress to and already pressured learning environment.
So I don’t see myself being bias simply because of these facts stating truth to what too much pressure can do to someone. Every human being has a different psyche that learns and develops in both similar and different ways. There are fast learners who catch onto things quickly. So I can’t completely knock Chinese methods because there a are still a lot of successful kids coming from those homes and they still are all around better academically than Americans are. Yet then there are people who learn at a slower rate but can still have a good outcome if taught right and if they get the right help. Having said that learning depends on the individual child being taught and if they handle pressure to learn faster and better or if they can’t. It’s all about the child being taught according to their needs and what is necessary for them to succeed.
The world is a rough place and it’s up to the child to determine what they make of it and the parents to guide them where they want to go. One aspect of the Chinese parenting method I don’t agree with is the pressuring part of it. Like I stated before pressure isn’t always good and over doing it like “Chinese” mothers using it loosely… believe pressure is what makes their kids more successful and superior to westerners.
This is not always true as a study has shown high suicide rates amongst Chinese teenagers due to academic pressures. Its citizens are known for having high expectations set for them regarding academic success with their children. It is so prestigious over there that it is like the only thing worth living for in a sense and that failure is seen as not comprehensible. This meaning they can’t fail at anything academically and have to be the very best.
In the pressure test I mentioned incentives can prove to be the greatest pressure. To these teenagers the learning part wasn’t the best and wasn’t their main goal to get through. The main goal or incentive for them to achieve is getting into prestigious schools around the country or the best universities in their country. Asia all around has the highest suicide rates and it’s due to academics mostly. These people range from 15-40 years of age, which are mostly reported to be student teenagers. In China 287,000 people die a year from suicide, again mostly due to academic pressures and failures. It is truly seemingly “The One Shot Society”. If they don’t get in they feel complete failure and that there is no hope. This leads them to suicide because they think they have nothing else to live for besides academics. Thus proving that pressuring your child into a life revolving nothing but book smarts isn’t the best way to configure a good character for that given child. Down the road it can be disastrous. This is my stand on Chinese parenting having its faults just like Westerner parenting does as well.
English 1010 F 9:00-12:00
Professor McKeever
November 5, 2012
Word Count:1,017
Chinese Parenting Downfall
Reading Amy Chua’s Why Chinese Mother’s are Superior… I have found fallacies in my opinion. Amy backing the Chinese parenting techniques to be superior to western techniques is false but also has truth to it. I believe raising a healthy, bright, and well-rounded child is dependant on the child, and parents have to accommodate needs to help their child learn. However the best way to teach and help a child learn is by forming a good strong character structure supporting them in what they want to do or achieve. This is done by setting guidelines and ways of invoking ideas to lead the child down the right path to success. The focus of my argument on Chua’s article is centered on the idea that pressuring their child isn’t always or even is the best way for kids to learn as Chinese, Korean, or Asian parents think.
First off I want to get the point across that the parents are the ones who brought the child into this world not the child. Therefore parents need to support them in anyway that meets their child’s needs, building their character in ways that will help them excel. Strict parenting in the way of the Chinese to me is a bit extreme. It’s my opinion; my opinion could be seen as bias due to being raised in the western ways but, in logic pressuring people isn’t always the answer.
In a study by the psychologist Sam Glucksberg at Princeton University he commenced a study showing over pressuring can cause high stress levels and panicking and lead to disruption in the brain causing slower learning. He did this in two very same tests but added a twist to one. The first group of subjects he had sit in a room and gave them materials including thumb tacks, book of matches and the candle and had to make the candle stick to the wall without dripping wax onto a table next to the wall when the wick is lit. The second groups of test subjects were given the same materials as the last. However the second group was giving an incentive of making money depending on how fast they were able to complete the task but have to finish in the top 25%.
After concluding this experiment Professor Glucksberg found that the group with the money incentive on average finished three and a half minutes slower than the group with no incentive. What is noticed is the first group had no added pressure to completing the given task unlike group two. The incentive dulled group two’s creative thinking due to the pressure created through the time span to get the reward. The thing to this is one’s brain has many different learning processing center s and falter under certain amount of pressure. “Chinese methods” of learning induce heavy amounts of pressure to the child. Although some may be able to handle it others cant and create added stress to and already pressured learning environment.
So I don’t see myself being bias simply because of these facts stating truth to what too much pressure can do to someone. Every human being has a different psyche that learns and develops in both similar and different ways. There are fast learners who catch onto things quickly. So I can’t completely knock Chinese methods because there a are still a lot of successful kids coming from those homes and they still are all around better academically than Americans are. Yet then there are people who learn at a slower rate but can still have a good outcome if taught right and if they get the right help. Having said that learning depends on the individual child being taught and if they handle pressure to learn faster and better or if they can’t. It’s all about the child being taught according to their needs and what is necessary for them to succeed.
The world is a rough place and it’s up to the child to determine what they make of it and the parents to guide them where they want to go. One aspect of the Chinese parenting method I don’t agree with is the pressuring part of it. Like I stated before pressure isn’t always good and over doing it like “Chinese” mothers using it loosely… believe pressure is what makes their kids more successful and superior to westerners.
This is not always true as a study has shown high suicide rates amongst Chinese teenagers due to academic pressures. Its citizens are known for having high expectations set for them regarding academic success with their children. It is so prestigious over there that it is like the only thing worth living for in a sense and that failure is seen as not comprehensible. This meaning they can’t fail at anything academically and have to be the very best.
In the pressure test I mentioned incentives can prove to be the greatest pressure. To these teenagers the learning part wasn’t the best and wasn’t their main goal to get through. The main goal or incentive for them to achieve is getting into prestigious schools around the country or the best universities in their country. Asia all around has the highest suicide rates and it’s due to academics mostly. These people range from 15-40 years of age, which are mostly reported to be student teenagers. In China 287,000 people die a year from suicide, again mostly due to academic pressures and failures. It is truly seemingly “The One Shot Society”. If they don’t get in they feel complete failure and that there is no hope. This leads them to suicide because they think they have nothing else to live for besides academics. Thus proving that pressuring your child into a life revolving nothing but book smarts isn’t the best way to configure a good character for that given child. Down the road it can be disastrous. This is my stand on Chinese parenting having its faults just like Westerner parenting does as well.