That same April issue of
The Atlantic has two more pieces about childhood and education. Both offer different perspectives.
Here's an excerpt from
one of them :
Because as much as I cavil about Chua�s fears of generational decline, I admit that my own murky hopes for my kids are even more open to question. Truth be told, I am not sure what I want for them. Harangued by my own Tiger Dad, I grew up believing in crack math skills and followed�at least initially�a stereotypical Chinese path of acing my tests; getting into the world�s most prestigious science university, Caltech (early admission, no less); majoring in the hardest, most rarefied subject, physics � And then what? Almost 50 years old now, some 30 years after graduation, I look at my Caltech classmates and conclude that math whizzes do not take over the world. The true geniuses�the artists of the scientific world�may be unlocking the mysteries of the universe, but the run-of-the-mill really smart overachievers like me? They�re likely to end up in high-class drone work, perfecting new types of crossword-puzzle-oriented screen savers or perhaps (really) tweaking the computer system that controls the flow in beer guns at Applebee�s. As we know, in this tundra-like new economy, even medical degrees, and especially law degrees, may translate into $250,000 of unrecoverable higher-education debt and no job prospects, despite any amount of hard work and discipline.
Sadly, I've seen this many, many times IRL. At least when it comes to scientists passion IS key. Those in the top of my field have a huge variety of backgrounds but what they all have in common is that they work non-stop because they love what they do. I honestly can't think of a single person who got to be a top scientist (obviously, I can't speak for every field out there, though!) who isn't really dedicated to their work.
I also know a number of brilliant people who have quit for the $$ because they weren't passionate about their work. Some started off interested but eventually found $ more enticing, others joined because it was an easier major to get into coming from abroad (vs. engineering, law or medicine which are notoriously very hard to get into), and still others were pushed into science by their families.
I don't doubt a Tiger mom of a reasonably intelligent child could get their kid into an Ivy by pushing like crazy. However, if you destroy that child's interests in the process what does that give you? Then again, if what you really want for your child is a high earning job and you don't care if they enjoy that job or not, you can *probably* achieve that goal. I've seen that first hand in my immediate family and let's just say while the guy got the right job the end results were not pretty!
