Wit & Wisdom

Game Changers & Tales of Triumph and Woe

Random good reads: "Face it. Don't Facebook it."

CJ Westerberg, August 9, 2011 9:26 AM

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"I felt they wasted a lot of time at Lulu's school"
- Amy Chua, "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother"

Teaching Kids How to Break Up Nicely - "Face It Don't Facebook It"  The NY Times

Can Online Social Networks Replace Real Socializing? - Wired

Don't Write What You Know - Why fiction's narrative and emotional integrity will always transcend the literal truth by Bret Anthony Johnston - The Atlantic


Book excerpt from "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother" by Amy Chua:

"Looking back, I think things started to turn when Lulu was in six
grade - I just didn't realize it.  One of the things Lulu hated most was my insistence on pulling her out of school to get in some extra violin practicing.  I felt they wasted a lot of time at Lulu's school, so several times a week I'd write a note to her teacher explaining that she had a recital or an audition coming up and requesting permission to take her out of school during lunch period or gym class.  Sometimes I'd be able to cobble together a two-hour block by combining lunch, two recesses, and say, music class, where they'd be playing cowbells, or art class, where they'd be decorating booths for the Halloween Fair.  I could see that Lulu dreaded the sight of me every time I appeared at her school, and her classmates always looked at me oddly, but she was only eleven then, and I still could still impose my will on her.  And I'm sure it was because of the extra practicing that Lulu won all those music awards."


Regarding Chua's book, I recommend it.  Whether you agree with any or all of her parenting philosophy, she is a mom who wants the best for her daughters which is something that transcends differences.  I found "Hymn" highly entertaining and a brave move on her part in many ways.

How can one resist eye-opening moments like the one above?  One last note, I did lambaste her in a previous post, based upon the immediately viral Wall Street Journal article that lit everyone's fire.  Yet, after reading the book, I didn't feel quite as vitriolic.  Actually, I didn't feel
that way at all.  She had a Lucille Ball quality to her incredible antics.
    - CJW  





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Now, keeping in mind these fourfold interests - interest in conversation, or communication; in inquiry, or finding out things; in making things or construction; and in artistic expression - we may say they are natural resources, the uninvested capital, upon the exercise of which depends the active growth of the child..
John Dewey, The School and Society, 1900
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