The soldiers fight and the kings are heroes.
Hebrew proverb
What Happened to My Readers?
I'm disappointed that my readership has dropped considerably since the start of the month. I would write a solid blog even if nobody else read it, but a number of former readers are missing some great posts...
Amy Chua: "Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior": Thumbs UP!
This is an interesting, controversial January 8 column in the Wall Street Journal (over 2500 comments and climbing), an excerpt from an upcoming book by a Chinese immigrant Harvard Law professor. I will not summarize the whole article here (the reader is encouraged to read the column), but she seems to suggest that there are a number of cultural reasons why Asian students do well: at the risk of oversimplification, she suggests that Chinese parents are much more vested in the education of their children, spending magnitudes of times in the early intellectual development of their children; expect a high level of performance, refusing to accept less than an A for any school class; demand respect and a key criterion of that respect is dutiful academic excellence; hold their children, not the teacher, responsible for suboptimal efforts; ration praise for truly virtuous performances, while refusing to accept excuses for non-performance; are not satisfied with a minimal effort to get by but demand quantity and quality of after-school study and worthwhile activities (like playing the piano or violin) with few frivolous distractions (e.g., TV, video games, sleepovers, summer camp, and unproductive extracurricular activities).
Amy implies her husband Jed is American, and they have had disagreements over the raising of their two daughters, with her husband playing the good cop, feeding the kids pancakes and taking them to ballgames, with a "let kids be kids" philosophy.
I have not read through the 2500 responses to Chua's essay, but even without reading them, I could predict what would be the typical response: parents who encourage just the types of things Professor Chua restricts have a vested interest in defending their own parenting skills. (I should note that I myself have not been a parent, but I do have over 20 nephews and nieces.)
My overall opinion: I think Professor Chua is precisely on the right track in terms of demanding excellence from one's children, of putting children on a very short leash in terms of grades and schoolwork, limiting fun-time and expecting worthy activities, of expecting respect towards parents and others (what happened to the fourth commandment?), and of blaming the child, not the teacher for poor performance.
On the other hand, I happen to think (perhaps because it reflects my own experience) that it is important for the child to internalize high achievement standards, not out of a sense of duty for one's parents or other adults, but for one's own self-actualization; grades are often inflated, subjective in nature, and hence not necessarily indicative of the quantity or quality of learning performance; and I believe that parents should model the behavior they expect from their children, e.g., proportional in context, persistent, patient, and respectful. Initiative, hard work, excellence, and integrity are goals both in school and in life. (I had four younger brothers and sisters by the time I was in early elementary school, so my folks expected more from me. No doubt it was harder on my younger siblings following in the steps of a valedictorian.)
On a side note, I should note that Professor Chua, on other topics, is certainly not a libertarian-conservative. She argues in one of her earlier works that the free market philosophy does not translate well in other (e.g., Asian) cultures where the inequity of income results in cultural unrest. She suggests that a social safety net is important to the cross-cultural evangelization of the philosophy of a democratic republic. I'll briefly respond to that: first, the free market is the ultimate crucible, the arbiter of excellence in achieving market share of quality goods and services. Second, inequity in income is an artifact of market success. To some extent, that reflects one's knowledge, abilities, skills, and efforts. However, wealth today doesn't necessarily predict future income (consider, for instance, the effect on public utilities if a technology was introduced that made homes self-sufficient in power generation and use), and hence, companies need to evolve to compete.
The Good, the Bad and the Rhetoric
On one hand, Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik reflected on a Flight 93 (9/11) style moment during Saturday's tragedy in Tuscon:
I'm told he was firing as fast he was capable of firing.He's trying to re-load when one of the individuals hits him over the head with a chair, and then people grab him and a lady grabs the magazine and at that point he is subdued.Dupnik, a Democrat, also had this to say:
The kind of rhetoric that flows from people like Rush Limbaugh, in my judgment he is irresponsible, uses partial information, sometimes wrong information. [Limbaugh] attacks people, angers them against government, angers them against elected officials and that kind of behavior in my opinion is not without consequences.
Here we go again. Liberals/progressives are, of course, the divinely-inspired purveyors of absolute truth; surely it could not be the fact that independents and moderates were frustrated enough with the bait-and-switch Democratic Congress and President to put the number of House Democrats in Congress at its second lowest total since the late 1920's. (And only a handful or so nail-biter Democratic victories, like the injured Congresswoman's, kept this Congress from sinking to that number (or going below it).) The anger results from the Democrats overreaching their mandate and piling up an unsustainable national debt, risking people's health choices, and all but ignoring the economy after a huge, ineffective stimulus, etc.
Of course, the fact that the alleged shooter was a registered independent and didn't even vote last November doesn't phase the partisan types. What is particularly offensive is the blatant hypocrisy of the mainstream media. When one leftist website carried a simulated conversation with Bristol Palin's unborn child begging for someone to put him out of his misery, where was the outrage? The lack of civility of progressives is stunning; it's not just the unprovoked characterization of Tea Party supporters as "racists" and "teabaggers" (an implied reference to a homosexual sex act) or The View comediennes turning their backs on Bill O'Reilly and walking off the set. It's also the cheering of an Iraqi journalist throwing shoes at President Bush.
Any faithful reader of this blog knows that I myself have criticized Rush Limbaugh on a handful of occasions; personally, I think it's counter-productive. It lacks the sunny optimism of a congenial Ronald Reagan that appealed to independents and moderates alike. But Rush has an audience that reaches into the milliions, and he's had them for over 20 years.
Dupnik is basically trying to scapegoat Limbaugh and other media conservatives because he's trying to exploit the tragedy to stifle criticism of Democratic Congressman and Presidents. It's not going to work. No reinstatement of the "Fairness Doctrine", no censorship of conservative views. There's an inconvenient truth called the First Amendment.
On the other hand, to the media conservatives. I don't watch Bill O'Reilly that often, but I've heard him constantly acting defensively, repeatedly asking his guests on whether he's been fair. (No, Bill: a guest is going to tell you straight to the face you haven't been fair. Guess when he'll next be on the show?) Deal with it. I've said since the earliest days of this blog, my own mother disagrees with me on a number of issues. Progressives have always acted this way.
Political Humor
A new study found that humans started wearing clothes about 170,000 years ago. In fact, the first sentence ever spoken was, “Me look fat in this?” - Jimmy Fallon
[Well, Jimmy, you'll be glad to know the Second Court of Appeals has thrown out a $1.2M fine on ABC-TV by the FCC for showing actress Charlotte Ross nude from behind heading for the shower in a 2003 episode of NYPD Blue. This, of course, was surely not gratuitous, titillating nudity but a compelling part of the storyline on prime-time TV. No doubt the male cop had to pick her bare bottom out of a lineup of others....That's progress--going back 170,000 years. We can now expect television from now on to get to the bottom of this ruling (and the top as well).]
California Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey referred to the war in Afghanistan as a “national embarrassment.” Then she watched the premiere of “Jersey Shore” and was like, “Never mind.” - Jimmy Fallon
[Poor VP Joe Biden! Always the bridesmaid, never the bride!]
Musical Interlude: One-Hit Wonders/Instrumentals
Nick Lowe, "Cruel to be Kind"
