Take it easy, Chinese Moms# WaterWorld - 未名水世界
T*1
1 楼
I first read this article in Journal on Monday, didn’t take it very
seriously. To me, this is just marketing gimmick: someone is preparing for
her new book, therefore, tried very hard to catch people’s eyeballs and
make it as controversial as possible. I saw some people get quite emotional
about the portrait of “Chinese Mom” that came out of the article and
started to trash the author and trash Chinese education. What I would like
to say is “Take it easy, Chinese Moms”.
First of all, it is so obvious that the author exaggerated what Chinese Moms
do and how Chinese Moms nurture their kids. In some instances, I think she
also exaggerated how her kids were raised. I was amused while reading her
stories as I felt her approach is extremely rudimentary. It seems that in
her dictionary there is only black and white and that is exactly how she
treats her kids.
That being said, she does have some valid points about America education and
pin-pointed why American kids have become less and less competitive. I was
the “product” of Chinese education and I had nothing to feel ashamed of.
In my opinion, Chinese education is one the most solid education in the
world a kid can ever get. I always hear people complaining about the lack of
creativity as one of the biggest shortfalls of Chinese education, which to
me is totally nonsense. First, I don’t think Chinese people are less
creative than American. Don’t be so naïve to use Nobel Prize as the
benchmark. It’s a western game after all. People have to remember, Chinese
started its economic growth just about 30 years ago! Look at what we have
achieved! How can anyone say Chinese people are not creative? If we are
truly not as creative as some people have blamed, why don’t I see any
country that came even nearly close? True, the Chinese society still has
lots of issues need to deal with, but that all take time. Moreover, how many
creative people do we need in a society? Probably less than 1%. What
majority of the population needs is not creativity, but SOLID skills, which
has exactly been left out from American education. After living in US for
over ten years, after seeing what my kid has learned from one of the best
private elementary schools in New England, I had no conviction in American
education. To that end, I agree with the author that people should not rely
on American ways for superior performance.
At the end, I feel proud to be a Chinese Mom. I believe neither Chinese nor
American way is the panacea, not to mention those extremists. Smart moms don
't blindly follow one approach but know how to take the best out of both
worlds.
seriously. To me, this is just marketing gimmick: someone is preparing for
her new book, therefore, tried very hard to catch people’s eyeballs and
make it as controversial as possible. I saw some people get quite emotional
about the portrait of “Chinese Mom” that came out of the article and
started to trash the author and trash Chinese education. What I would like
to say is “Take it easy, Chinese Moms”.
First of all, it is so obvious that the author exaggerated what Chinese Moms
do and how Chinese Moms nurture their kids. In some instances, I think she
also exaggerated how her kids were raised. I was amused while reading her
stories as I felt her approach is extremely rudimentary. It seems that in
her dictionary there is only black and white and that is exactly how she
treats her kids.
That being said, she does have some valid points about America education and
pin-pointed why American kids have become less and less competitive. I was
the “product” of Chinese education and I had nothing to feel ashamed of.
In my opinion, Chinese education is one the most solid education in the
world a kid can ever get. I always hear people complaining about the lack of
creativity as one of the biggest shortfalls of Chinese education, which to
me is totally nonsense. First, I don’t think Chinese people are less
creative than American. Don’t be so naïve to use Nobel Prize as the
benchmark. It’s a western game after all. People have to remember, Chinese
started its economic growth just about 30 years ago! Look at what we have
achieved! How can anyone say Chinese people are not creative? If we are
truly not as creative as some people have blamed, why don’t I see any
country that came even nearly close? True, the Chinese society still has
lots of issues need to deal with, but that all take time. Moreover, how many
creative people do we need in a society? Probably less than 1%. What
majority of the population needs is not creativity, but SOLID skills, which
has exactly been left out from American education. After living in US for
over ten years, after seeing what my kid has learned from one of the best
private elementary schools in New England, I had no conviction in American
education. To that end, I agree with the author that people should not rely
on American ways for superior performance.
At the end, I feel proud to be a Chinese Mom. I believe neither Chinese nor
American way is the panacea, not to mention those extremists. Smart moms don
't blindly follow one approach but know how to take the best out of both
worlds.
