Palmer's Book Post #4

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother

by Amy Chua

Part #2

     The majority of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother is dedicated to the progression of the children through their mother's rigorous pedagogy. There are frequent instances where one of the children, Louisa, rebels against the mother and voices her dissatisfaction with the conditions, but the conflict is usually resolved in favor of the mother. Through the hard schedules designed by the mother, both children become musical talents (one performed at Carnegie Hall at 15) as well as highly successful students. At the end of the book, the children are revealed to hold no grudges for the methods used by the mother for their success, and are in fact thankful for her dedication to their development. This serves as very strong support for these parenting methods because even though the parent may not seem loving in the moment, the child usually realizes the reason behind the harsh treatment.

     I personally enjoyed this book. I feel I strongly relate to many of the points the author makes about raising and educating children (minus the verbal abuse, micromanagement, etc.) and it really made me think about how society around me has shaped my conceptions of pedagogy. 

(Please forgive any spelling errors in the past two posts. 

Spell check is not working and my brain is dead.)