Amy Chua

Essay by blandikUniversity, Bachelor'sA, October 2014

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Amy Chua and Hannah Rosin: a comparison and contrast of parenting styles

In recent years, Yale professor Amy Chua has drawn a great deal of attention due to her focus on a parenting style that is foreign - both figuratively and literally - to most Western parents. This style centers on a Chinese model that Chua espouses, and that has become famous, or infamous, for the stern and rigorous practices that Chua enforced with her own two daughters. Chua has received a large amount of criticism; one of her critics is Hannah Rosin, a prominent writer and editor. In response to Chua, Rosin outlines an alternative method of parenting. It can be argued that while both Chua and Rosin are involved and devoted mothers, they have distinctly contrasting views on how to raise children. There are three areas in which this contrast can be most clearly seen: attitudes to success, attitudes to self-esteem, and attitudes to happiness.

Amy Chua's model of parenting has success at its core. Chua sums up the Chinese approach to activities in this way: "What Chinese parents understand is that nothing is fun until you're good at it" (Chua, 2011). With this as a mantra, Chua promotes an extremely rigorous approach to such activities as learning a musical instrument; she believes that two or three hours of practicing an instrument daily is appropriate for young children. Furthermore, Chua believes that parents should not give their children any choice over which musical instruments to learn; the violin and piano are the only acceptable choices, regardless of the child's natural talent or predilection. This approach is also evident in academics. Chua says, "…the vast majority of Chinese mothers…believe their children can be 'the best' students, that 'academic achievement reflects successful parenting' and that if children did not...