Parenting and Student Success - Essay Example

Paul begins her analysis of Chua’s book and the furor that accompanied it by citing several excerpts from the book that she reckons may have ignited the controversy. This way, she perfectly places her piece in the correct context by identifying with the wild emotions provoked by Chua’s book. This helps her later to critique the audience on the issue of parenting. It also helps her to provide a background to Chua’s book and the specific reasons behind its controversy as well as sales. Paul establishes that the public’s outrage towards Chua is due to a section in the book where the “self-described "tiger mother,"” reigned in on Lulu, her daughter, to practice for long continuous hours “.

with no breaks for water or even the bathroom.” Paul is also of the opinion that the public’s outrage towards Chua may also be due to her reference to Sophia, her other daughter as garbage when she was deemed to be disrespectful, or even her vilifying and rejection of the birthday card that Lulu made for her. These citations help Paul to set the correct tone with which to address quite a fundamental question in the American society; parenting (University of Richmond 2003). . own for being light-hearted here appears quite disturbed with Chua, barely containing her contempt while reading viewer comments such as "She's a monster" and "The way she raised her kids is outrageous".

Others have even questioned Chua’s love for the children. Paul asserts that Chua “gave as good as she got,” further airing her views that Western parents are weak. This ultimately leads their children to ruin by giving them too much free time and “how poorly they prepare them for the future," especially when “It's a tough world out there.” However, Paul argues that the intense contempt and reaction to Chua’s stance and self-declared superiority masks certain underlying concerns amongst Americans, “her invocation of what she describes as traditional "Chinese parenting" has hit hard at a national sore spot”.

This is the fear that Americans seem to have about Chinese domination of global affairs. Essentially, Paul employs the conflict “Tiger Moms” and Western parenting to discuss America’s place in the global outlook especially with the recent advances being made by the Chinese. Paul then adopts an anecdotal tone in detailing the economic plight of America, and their comparison to the rest of the world in terms of education. She indicates that the American economy is not performing as traditionally would be expected to grow at “an anemic 2.

6% and many economists say unemployment will continue to hover above 9%” and further expounds that “Part of the reason? Jobs outsourced to emerging economies such as Brazil, India and China.” She contrasts the economic plight of America to that of China observing that “Meanwhile, in China, the economy is steaming along at more than 10% annual growth” and is at the moment at a surplus running into