I've come across some more articles on parenting styles with regard to education:
That piece in the Wall Street Journal about Chinese mothers stirred up a lot of emotions in other readers – upwards of 5700 comments, more than any other article they have printed. On Saturday WSJ printed a response from Ayelet Waldman, the new voice of contemporary mothers, although I’m not sure she’s who I’d pick to represent my views. In this piece, though, she makes some good points about parenting to the needs of your child.
Then yesterday NPR had an interview with a mother, Vicki Abeles, who has made a documentary film about how stressed out kids are called “Race to Nowhere.” Her preteen daughter was suffering from sleeplessness and anxiety because she felt so much pressure to perform and excel.
So on the one hand you’ve got the tough Chinese mothers saying “Push your children!” and on the other hand some softhearted ones who say “Don’t push your children too much!”
I asked my middle school sons if it seemed kids were stressed at their school. They couldn’t think of anyone, except some friends who get worked up with they aren’t doing well at their video games.
Third article: a book review about a book about social media called Alone Together: How We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other. The reviewer made the point that Holden Caulfield, with his hatred of phonies, would be appalled at how authenticity is no longer a virtue; everyone is now more concerned about how to make their online/social media self more attractive than about being authentic. A couple of kids were quoted about how they prefer to text than talk on the phone because they don’t want to show their emotions.
Combine that with an article a couple months ago about the amount of texting kids do. Somewhere I read about a 14 yr old girl who sent 25000 texts in a month. I asked the college kids last semester how many texts a month they averaged, and it was around 2500-3500 – about 100 texts a day.
And then this piece about how little some college kids are reading.
It would be pretty easy to make the argument that kids aren’t under pressure to excel at academics, but to keep up with their social personas. Compare the number of times you see a preteen/teenager with a book with the number of times you see one with a phone. How many know who Holden Caulfield is? (Not that he’s the ideal character, but he’s an icon most teens probably don’t recognize.)
I wonder if the mother who made the documentary might find that if kids cared about learning – if their imaginations were ignited – they might not feel so stressed out. Get those kids interested in reading.
In the Shadow of the Past
2 months ago
3 comments:
+JMJ+
There are a lot of thought-provoking here, Emily!
I'm familiar only with the Chinese parenting article because Pentimento linked to it last week. My experience with students who have had "Chinese" mothers is that they're excellent at Maths and music, but not so much at projects requiring creativity and original thinking. But these are a little trickier to spark than drills are to enforce! I remember my stepfather asking me to teach my baby brother creative writing when he got old enough: even as a teenager, my first thought was, "Okay, but who's going to teach him to want to pick up that pen?"
E - Did you figure out a way to spark creativity with your little brother? I have struggled for some years to envision an "ideal" education - but the problem is that I need an "ideal" student - that kid who doesn't need to be taught to want to pick up the pencil!
+JMJ+
I was a sullen teenager and then a uni student in another country during his formative years, so I'm afraid someone else took up the slack!
But now that he's a teenager, I can say that his talents are not in writing and his interests not in reading. He's more into art and make-believe--which are great, too!
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