A Critique of Amy Chua's Views on Parenting

Mr. Stolyarov responds to Amy Chua's provocative Wall Street Journal article, "Why Chinese Mothers are Superior" - http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704111504576059713528698754.html

Unlike Ms. Chua, Mr. Stolyarov argues that parents should cultivate internal discipline, rather than impose external discipline. He analyzes and critiques Chua's view from the standpoints of individual liberty and empathy. He also argues that humiliation does not build character and that the possible paths toward high accomplishment are far broader than Ms. Chua seems to presume.

Supplemental reading: "Unstructured Leisure and Progress" by G. Stolyarov II - http://www.quebecoislibre.org/10/100515-4.htm

Mr. Stolyarov's musical compositions (yes, all of them were eventually preserved in some medium): http://rationalargumentator.com/music_stolyarov.html

Category:

Education

Tags:

• amy
• chua
• chinese
• parent
• parenting
• child
• children
• discipline
• internal
• external
• upbringing
• accomplish
• achieve
• accomplishment
• achievement
• skills
• education
• music
• piano
• violin
• instrument
• academic
• academics
• study
• freedom
• liberty
• philosophy
• ideas
• empathy
• rights
• experimentation
• leisure
• reason
• rational
• self-direction
• creativity
• creation
• autonomy

[KagarBeardtooth]

One of the most critical points you made deals with the fact that under her method of parenting, children develop a debilitating dependency on external motivators. People greatly underestimate how potentially devastating this can be.

As someone who has had relations with people who have suffered under literal slavery, I can testify that your crutch analogy is gravely accurate. The will - individual determination, passion - is a muscle of the soul that can atrophy to the point of no return.

[GStolyarovII]

@KagarBeardtooth Agreed in full. Thank you for these astute observations.

[JacobPelka]

You'd be a wonderful father Gennady. =)

What do you think of Nature vs Nuture? Do you think a child's upbringing has a great or lesser impact on a child's potential, or do you believe it is something 'inate' in the child?

[GStolyarovII]

@JacobPelka Thank you, and an excellent question! I shall have to make a video on this subject, as it requires some elaboration. I will say for now that I am not a genetic determinist and do not believe that genes can foreordain the potential of the child. However, I also do not think that upbringing is everything; a child can exhibit a range of reactions to the same upbringing. The environment can offer more or fewer opportunities to the child, but it is up to the child to pursue them.

[dadrogon]

I like most of the Chinese people I meet, but they have this weird aversion to philisophical though in general. Its like they are programmed to lack any explicit ideology. Even the stupid hics I have grown up in the midwest had opinions, but all the chinese people I met avoid the topic at all costs. Maybe its because they are taught not to or maybe because its hard to talk about those things in english. Not sure.

[GStolyarovII]

@dadrogon I think part of what you observe may arise from the doublethink that many Chinese have been forced to espouse with regard to communism in their home country. The regime has dispensed with many of the economic structures of communism, while still paying lip service to it and retaining some of the old political oppressions. So, at least in the political arena, many Chinese are not sure what they are “supposed” to believe and so shun the subject altogether.

[JacobPelka]

What, specifically, do you consider 'Western Civilization?

[GStolyarovII]

@kristopheraugust Yes, it is indeed rare to find someone who excels in a given paradigm while strongly challenging that paradigm. I was actually such a person during my schooling, but this earned me no shortage of resentment among many (though not all) other academically accomplished peers. The same phenomenon can be observed in later academia. Those who study a given theorist's work, for instance, are overwhelmingly admirers because of self-selection and peer reinforcement.

[GStolyarovII]

@ZombieX13 I would attribute this to the strong disciplinarian streak in much of contemporary American conservatism -- a streak I very much disagree with.

[GStolyarovII]

@the9564 Thank you!

[the9564]

Excellent video.