Amy Chua Hanna Rosen Essay

Amy Chua and Hannah resin a comparison and contrast of p arenting stylesIn recent years, Yale professor Amy Chua has careworn a great deal of attention due to her focus on a parenting style that is foreign two figuratively and literally to most western sandwich 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 macroscopical amount of criticism wiz of her critics is Hannah Rosin, a prominent writer and editor. In response to Chua, Rosin outlines an alternative method of parenting. It outhouse be argued that while both Chua and Rosin are involved and devoted m separates, 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 satisfaction.Amy Chuas model of parenting has succe ss at its core. Chua sums up the Chinese approach to activities in this mien What Chinese parents understand is that zip is fun until youre good at it (Chua, 2011). With this as a mantra, Chua promotes an extremely rigorous approach to such activities as learning a musical instrumentate she takes that two or three hours of practicing an instrument daily is appropriate for young children. Furthermore, Chua believes that parents should non give their children any choice over which musical instruments to learn the fiddle and piano are the only acceptable choices, regardless of the childs natural talent or predilection. This approach is also evident in academics. Chua says, the enormous majority of Chinese mothersbelieve their children can be the lift out students, that academic achievement reflects successful parenting and that if children did non excel at school there was a problem and parents were non doing their job (Chua, 2011).Hannah Rosin takes a distinctly different app roach to success, one that is arguably more reflective of Western attitudes in general. Rosin says, Ms. Chua has the diagnosis of American childhood exactly backward. What privileged American children need is not more skills and rules and math drills. They need to lighten up and roam free, to read themselves in waysnot dictated by their uptight, over-invested parents (Rosin, 2011). In Rosins view, Chuas version of success is ultimately very limiting. Rosin doesnt argue that success is a negative thing in and of itself however, her looser, freer approach suggests that it can be achieved differently.Another area where Rosin and Chua differ from each other is in their approach to self-esteem and the way in which parents should treat their children. Chua openly admits that it is common for Chinese parents to make comments to their children that Western parents find reprehensible, such as Hey fatty, misplace some weight, or referring to a child as garbage (Chua, 2011). However, Chua de fends these comments by arguing that in fact, Chinese parents speak in this way because ultimately, they believe that their children are capable of being the best. She contends that Chinese children know that their parents think highly of them, and criticize them only because they have high expectations and know that their children can proper them.Hannah Rosin disagrees. She says, there is no reason to believe that calling your child lazy or stupid or worthless is a better way to motivate her to be good than some other more gentle but persistent mode (Rosin, 2011). She believes that a parents role is not to act as a harsh critic and task master, but rather to guide them through the inevitable difficulties of life that arise. Unlike Chua, Rosin is not concerned with forcing her children to be the best. Rather, she says that It is better to have a gifted, moderately successful child than a miserable high-achiever (Rosin, 2011).It is in this area, pertaining to notions of happiness t hat Chua and Rosin proceed most distinctly from each other. It can be argued that the idea of happiness is almost in all absent from Amy Chuas template. Chua says, Chinese parents believe that they know that is best for their children and therefore override all of their childrens own desires and preferences (Chua, 2011). In other words, the feelings or preference of the child as an individual are lacking completely from the Chinese framework of parenting. The childs happiness, or misery, is completely irrelevant, because theparent is the supreme authority, acting in the childs best interest. Chua claims, Its not that Chinese parents dont care about their children , just the opposite. They would give up anything for their children (Chua, 2011). However, the one thing that Chua and other parents will not give up is complete authoritarian control.Rosin takes an entirely different approach to the value of individual happiness. She observes that happiness does not come through being su ccessful furthermore, happiness is the great human quest (Rosin, 2011). Parents cannot possibly always be in a position to know what will make a child happy or not children must work out their own path to happiness (Rosin, 2011). Rosin believes that an over-emphasis on perfection will not lead to great happiness and may even create less happiness in the end.In conclusion, it is undeniable that both Amy Chua and Hannah Rosin love their children and believe that their approach to parenting is base on a desire to do what is best for those children. However, the two approaches present a sharp contrast to each other. Amy Chua believes that success, perfection and being the best are of paramount importance, and will ultimately build a childs self-esteem (Chua, 2011). Hannah Rosin is critical of the harshness of the Chinese template and argues for a gentler approach, one that takes the natural interests and talent of the child into account (Rosin, 2011). Rosin notes that the idea of enjo yment or happiness is strikingly absent from Chuas parenting style in turn, Chua observes that umpteen Western parents are disappointed with the choices that their children make in their lives (Rosin, 2011 Chua, 2011). It can be argued that both the Eastern approach and Western approach have a great deal to offer each other a wise parent knows how to walk a middle ground.