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matokah's reviews
405 reviews
타이거 마더 : 예일대 교수 에이미 추아의 엘리트 교육법 by Amy Chua
5.0
My boyfriend lent me a copy of this book at the beginning of our relationship, as an introduction to a relatively common parenting strategy directed at American-born children of Chinese parents. Was I mildly horrified by some of the things Chua admits to having put her daughters through? Yeah, absolutely. I'm of the Midwestern WASP variety, so I grew up having my interests nurtured and encouraged by parents that didn't necessarily want me to be the best at my chosen hobbies (figure skating was a big one for me), but rather wanted me to enjoy what I was doing, to feel good about my accomplishments within my chosen sport, no matter the time it took to accomplish them and without regard for the faster progress of other kids I skated with.
Battle Hymn gave me a lot of food for thought though. While I don't agree with a lot of the methods used to get her daughters to practice their respective musical instruments, sometimes for hours on end and even during family vacations, Chua's book illustrates methods that, by objective observation, were successful for her children -- to an extent.
What's more, the book is a memoir, and evaluating it in that capacity makes it stand out and shine even more. The chapters are short, the writing crisp and oftentimes humorous. There's no doubt in my mind that with Battle Hymn Chua has written a thought-provoking book that opens a window into a cultural mindset a lot of people wouldn't otherwise have had the opportunity to see -- and she does so in a way that's very easily readable, even relatable. What parent doesn't want their child to succeed, after all?
The true success of this book comes in Chua's ability to write from her perspective while also implicitly acknowledging how crazy and unreasonable her methods might seem to outsiders looking in. Her unrelenting willingness to offer up vignettes about her family's lives, successes, and the failures, perceived and actual, of her parenting methods themselves are what makes this book stand out. In the end, it's not about whether it was Chua and her methods or her children's sometimes negative reactions to them that came out on top; it was about someone who'd set out with a belief that only her parenting methods were right who ultimately obtained a valuable lesson in learning to relent, and from a teenage girl, no less. That's what makes this quick read of a memoir so difficult to put down.
Battle Hymn gave me a lot of food for thought though. While I don't agree with a lot of the methods used to get her daughters to practice their respective musical instruments, sometimes for hours on end and even during family vacations, Chua's book illustrates methods that, by objective observation, were successful for her children -- to an extent.
What's more, the book is a memoir, and evaluating it in that capacity makes it stand out and shine even more. The chapters are short, the writing crisp and oftentimes humorous. There's no doubt in my mind that with Battle Hymn Chua has written a thought-provoking book that opens a window into a cultural mindset a lot of people wouldn't otherwise have had the opportunity to see -- and she does so in a way that's very easily readable, even relatable. What parent doesn't want their child to succeed, after all?
The true success of this book comes in Chua's ability to write from her perspective while also implicitly acknowledging how crazy and unreasonable her methods might seem to outsiders looking in. Her unrelenting willingness to offer up vignettes about her family's lives, successes, and the failures, perceived and actual, of her parenting methods themselves are what makes this book stand out. In the end, it's not about whether it was Chua and her methods or her children's sometimes negative reactions to them that came out on top; it was about someone who'd set out with a belief that only her parenting methods were right who ultimately obtained a valuable lesson in learning to relent, and from a teenage girl, no less. That's what makes this quick read of a memoir so difficult to put down.