The End
24 Mar 2011 1 Comment
in Tiger Mother
Finished! This was a quick read, huh? And, I’m a little sad that it’s over. I definitely care about the family. I’ll be very interested in finding out where Sophia goes to college? Harvard? Luckily, in these internet days, I probably WILL be able to find that out.
I don’t think Amy Chua is crazy at all. All this talk about her being a “monster?” I don’t buy it. I think she was a good mom. Yes, she pushed her kids hard. But, I think that, in today’s world, you kind of have to push your kids hard if you want them to be successful. Otherwise, there are too many temptations out there that just lead to massive amounts of wasted time. (I’m a bit guilty of the facebook trap myself, and I only have 54 friends! Sometimes I find myself looking at pictures of people from high school, then all of the sudden I think, “What am I doing? Why am I wasting all this time?) And I’m not even a KID! I think it’s a tough, tough world to raise our kids in. I actually loved Amy’s speech at the end about the Founding Fathers not attending sleepovers! I’m totally into that scene. I know I’m obsessed with the past, but I like raising my kids the old-fashioned way. And, I love love love Lulu’s comment about the violin, where she talks about how it makes her feel that she’s going back in time. Shoot, if that’s the case, I wish I could play the violin!
I kind of wish I had been pushed harder myself. I honestly feel (and this is a huge topic of mine), that I’m just coming into my own now . . . now that I’m in my 30s. I have a lot of new ideas and new ambitions that I’ve never had before. Is this normal? I don’t even know. I want to hear more from my lady friends . . . .
24 Mar 2011 Leave a Comment
Whew! I’ve been avoiding this blog, afraid that Jenna had a slew of posts and comments up. Good! You don’t! I’ve been busy with children, AWC, chores, and Jane Eyre. I haven’t read Tiger Mother in over a week. I’m going to read it tonight, though. Maybe even finish it. But, I will say a few words on part 2 first. If nothing else, Amy Chua knows how to create suspense. Like, I kept putting off giving Teddy and Phoebe a bath because I wanted to find out if Lulu got into the pre-College program!
I also loved Sophia’s essay on playing the Romeo and Juliet song. That is excellent writing, eh? I don’t know enough about music to really judge the type of songs they play. But, I know enough about writing to know that Sophia’s essay is very good. So, Amy’s ambitions that her daughters be #1 in their classes seem to paying off there, at least. And, again, I don’t know anything about private schools, but I’m sure Sophia’s writing teachers have usually been quite good. I do admire Amy’s idea that, since she can’t force her children to be poor immigrants, she can at least force them to work hard on their music. So many kids (myself included, unfortunately) never worked that hard in high school. I always found it difficult to write about my experiences. Part of it was immaturity, but part was that I didn’t have a story about something I had overcome: my parents were happily married, we weren’t poor, there wasn’t anything really “different” about me, and I had never really worked that hard on anything. Now, age 33, I’m much more mature and able to see the bigger picture. Motherhood has helped, for sure. It’s something hard that I’m working on.
As an aside: this evening I was sitting outside my classroom at AWC while my students evaluated me. During that time, I saw several student athletes walk by, talking loudly. I saw only two students go into the “Student Success Center.” They were both Asian.
Finally, there’s a new book on my radar: My Korean Deli by Ben (ah, yes, Ben) Ryder Howe. I think this might be somewhat related to Tiger Mother. I definitely want to read it.
