1/24 Education Letters

Break records or kids

Extreme parental pressure such as that described by Maureen Downey in her “Tiger Mom” column causes one of two things. Either the child will break records or the child will break. We’ve read about accomplished athletes, musicians, scholars who credit their achievement to parents who had extremely high expectations for them and kept the pressure on. We’ve also heard about the other side of the coin where children rebelled, broke under the pressure or were so burned out that they never opened that piano keyboard again.

I believe that the key to it all is, not so much what the parent expects or how hard he or she pushes, but what the child expects of him or herself. Truly great performers create their own “Tiger Mom” within.

Jerry Schwartz, Alpharetta

Parenting equals abuse

After reading about tiger moms, I am thoroughly shocked and disgusted. While I understand the need for a certain measure of structure in a child’s life, the amount of structure that Chua has instigated is extreme. Denying food and water to her child while practicing piano made me cringe. These are two measures that our society has defined as torture. These methods are controversial even when being used in Guantanamo Bay. We have to ask, where does one draw the line? What’s so different between doing this and locking your kid in the basement for days on end?

What’s the next step, burning them with cigarettes? Chua’s parenting strategy is physical and emotional child abuse. It’s bad enough to do this to any child, of any age, but a 7-year-old? This sick woman’s depravity knows no bounds.

Jacob Greydanus, 14, Atlanta

Contrast was stark

I was impressed by the profound contrast between teacher William Blackwood’s guest column on his south DeKalb school and Maureen Downey’s recounting of the Asian “tiger mom.” I heartily agree with Blackwood’s recommendation to trim down the bloated, non-teaching bureaucracy.

Families in this community need to take more responsibility for disciplining students to do their school work — yes, that includes math and science. In addition, the students need to take pride in learning and excellence in all school subjects and not deride the ones who excel academically. In contrast, while I admire the Asian families’ tendencies to demand superior academic performance from their children, I wonder how many of these Asian kids end up with serious psychiatric problems if they are pummeled into learning the so- called hard-core school subjects but are deprived of the joys of participation in physical education and school plays and musicals.

Both communities can learn from each other. There is a middle ground somewhere.