A very hot topic for the last two weeks has been the WSJ article by Yale law professor Amy Chua, “Why Chinese Mothers are Superior.” It has prompted this insightful piece by Jeff Tucker. His point is that the real distinction isn’t between Chinese parents and the slovenly rest of us, but between those parents who still take responsibility for ensuring that their children learn steadily throughout their formative years and those (the great majority) who just let government authorities handle their children’s schooling. (Schooling often leads to little learning.)
Here is Tucker’s argument in brief: “As a culture, we’ve come to trust someone else to take on the essential responsibility of molding the next generation. The central plan has instilled a kind of parental lethargy. We let the state take over the core responsibilities from the age of 5 through 22, and then we are shocked to discover that kids leave college without a sense of work ethic, without marketable skills, and even without the ambition to succeed in the real world.”
