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"If you?re going to be a diva, then own it."

Says David Lat:

Was this lesson was lost on Yale law professor Amy Chua, the author of an incendiary essay in last weekend?s Wall Street Journal, Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior, and a new book about Eastern versus Western parenting styles, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother?...

After her controversial essay about the superiority of Chinese mothers and hard-ass Asian parenting set the blogosphere on fire ? and sent her book rocketing to #5 on the Amazon bestseller list ? Chua backtracked a bit, instead of defiantly standing her ground....

Lat read the book and says the WSJ piecce is "a collection of the book?s most inflammatory, anti-Western-parenting portions, collected from far-flung chapters" that "lacks the nuance and the narrative arc of Chua?s full memoir." Nevertheless, the WSJ piece got the book immense attention (including the attention she's as she remakes her image), so how can she complain?

What troubles me about the book is the idea that other parents, with less good sense and less naturally talented children, will extract advice that will lead to child abuse... or something close to it. Children need to play to develop their minds. They need to find intrinsic delight in their experiences. What good is hyper-achievement for its own sake?

Full post as published by Althouse on January 15, 2011 (boomark / email).