1911 2011 2111
"Tiger Mothers" In Asia create fact filled automotons who work hard at staying busy and staying out of trouble, doing what they're told, and pleasing their superiors/parents.
"Eagle Mothers" In the US and A create problem solvers and creative thinkers out of their children through a balance of play, sports, reading, thinking, and just doing a whole lot of nothing. That's the way kids should be raised. Maybe someday China will figure that out. Right now, they think stuffing knowledge down the throats of 6 year olds is the answer to our awesomeness. It isn't.
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I don't give a darn if 100% of Asian kids know trig at 9 years of age. Memorizing facts is a failed strategy of raising kids. Getting children to think on their own, to find what makes each person unique, what each young person's special gifts are, is better than reading the collected works of Shakespeare or Freud or any of that shit. Give me a point guard, a middle linebacker, and a standup comedian and I'll take my chances against anything China has to offer in this generation or the next.
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Tom Brokaw on "The Today Show with Hoda and Kathie Lee" this morning wondered what historians will think of our nation in a hundred years. Good question, but impossible to answer.
His query got me to wondering what to make of America in 1911. Women couldn't vote. Phones were rare. Tens upon tens of thousands of workers were killed every year in industrial accidents. Cars were still rare. There was no penicillin or mass sanitation. Fire departments were a joke. Ethnic strike was an accepted part of life in every city. The Civil War was only 45 years in the past, so veterans with missing arms and legs lived in every town and city in the country. There was no movie industry, no radio, no recording industry. The War to End All Wars was on the horizon.
Think times are tough now? Think about how your great grandfathers and great grandmothers struggled and tell me things aren't much, much better.
Look back to look forward.
"Eagle Mothers" In the US and A create problem solvers and creative thinkers out of their children through a balance of play, sports, reading, thinking, and just doing a whole lot of nothing. That's the way kids should be raised. Maybe someday China will figure that out. Right now, they think stuffing knowledge down the throats of 6 year olds is the answer to our awesomeness. It isn't.
===============
I don't give a darn if 100% of Asian kids know trig at 9 years of age. Memorizing facts is a failed strategy of raising kids. Getting children to think on their own, to find what makes each person unique, what each young person's special gifts are, is better than reading the collected works of Shakespeare or Freud or any of that shit. Give me a point guard, a middle linebacker, and a standup comedian and I'll take my chances against anything China has to offer in this generation or the next.
===============
Tom Brokaw on "The Today Show with Hoda and Kathie Lee" this morning wondered what historians will think of our nation in a hundred years. Good question, but impossible to answer.
His query got me to wondering what to make of America in 1911. Women couldn't vote. Phones were rare. Tens upon tens of thousands of workers were killed every year in industrial accidents. Cars were still rare. There was no penicillin or mass sanitation. Fire departments were a joke. Ethnic strike was an accepted part of life in every city. The Civil War was only 45 years in the past, so veterans with missing arms and legs lived in every town and city in the country. There was no movie industry, no radio, no recording industry. The War to End All Wars was on the horizon.
Think times are tough now? Think about how your great grandfathers and great grandmothers struggled and tell me things aren't much, much better.
Look back to look forward.
posted by joe sweeney at 9:56 PM
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