翻出来以前申请工作时要求写的一篇热点事件评论。选了关于“虎妈”的事件。区别于很多文章对虎妈的声讨,这篇短评谈到了亚裔父母严厉的专制式教育背后一点积极的意义——对孩子的教育成就抱有很高的期待,也因此在男孩女孩教育投资和干涉方面更加显得一视同仁。 More Gender Equity in Tiger Mothers’ Eyes An excerpt titled “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior” kindled a hot debate on parenting at the moment it appeared in the Wall Street Journal on January 8, 2011, and has generated more than 7000 comments so far. The author, Amy Chua, a 48-year-old Chinese American woman who earned her Bachelor degree and J.D. from Harvard University and who is currently Yale Law School professor, was blamed for her extremely ruthless and scheming parenting methods by both western and Chinese American camp. Regardless of its extremity, Chua’s story partially reflects the truth of the parenting style adopted by Asian American parents (especially the first generation of immigrants) – intervening their children’s life with high expectations for these children’s educational and occupational outcomes – as many social science studies have shown. More importantly, the high expectations hold for both sons and daughters. Chua’s memoir hints, in the tiger mother’s eyes, her daughters – Sophia and Lulu – have potential that each human being should and could approach. There are no different or lower standards for daughters. If the daughters of Asian Americans realize that they can accomplish what they thought impossible with their parents’ strict and even gruesome interventions, they are likely to build confidence about themselves and pursue success in areas where difficulties are foreseeable. An adventure in a jungle of hardness for these girls may be, as Sophia stated in her open letter, “about knowing that you’ve pushed yourself, body and mind, to the limits of your own potential.” While statistics continuously reveal that Asian American female students outperform their female counterparts in other racial groups on scientific education outcomes, the family dynamics should provide a strong, if not the only, explanation for the observation.