(The Roar of the Tiger Mom) Synthesis - Assignment Example

Therefore, the competitiveness of children is by far determined by whether the child is from the western or from the Chinese culture, and what competitiveness means in those cultural contexts. Thus, this synthesis seeks to digest the various tenets of making children competitive in the future, through taking an account of different approaches that are applicable. Different approaches to parenting represented by the western and the Chinese Models Parenting approaches define the competiveness of children in the future.

The approaches of parenting can simply be defined as either the Chinese model, or the western model. The western model of parenting is open and free-range, where the parents allow their children to make some of the crucial choices in their lives, especially regarding their academic interests and the professions they would like to take (Behrens & Rosen, 2013). Therefore, according to the western model of parenting, children are allowed to see learning as fun, while avoiding stressing academic success upon the children, since “Western parents are extremely anxious about their children’s self-esteem” p144. . r children’s academic performance, through instilling on them a culture of academic pursuit that is almost free of other educational activities, such as games and drama (Behrens & Rosen, 2013).

Thus, Hanna Rosin, in her article, “Mother inferior” observes that “many American parents will read The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, and feel somewhat defensive and regretful” p148. Chinese parents spend most of their time imploring their children to pursue academic excellence, which is then used as a measure of successful parenting in the Chinese culture. According to this model, whenever a child is not performing exemplarily in academics, then, definitely the parent has failed in his/her role of parenting.

However, it is the Chinese mothers who play a great role in the education of their children, since the academic success of a child is used to measure the successful parenting of a Chinese mother (Behrens & Rosen, 2013). The most interesting aspect is that; the Chinese mothers have developed strict guidelines on how their children should behave, in terms of what they should pursue and what they should engage in, in the course of their learning. While the Chinese parents may spend up to 10 times of their time engaging their children in academics, the western parents allows their children more free time, for which they can use in sports and games The Chinese applies the philosophy that “nothing is fun, until you are good at it” p143.

Further, the Chinese parents apply the adage that to be good at something, one has to work, and children do not like working. Therefore, if a child has to become successful in anything, it is the duty of the parent to ensure that children are involved in working for what they are interested in. However, in denouncing this view,