Research shows more than 75 percent of Chinese students feel pressured under the education of their “Tiger mom,” according to chuansong.me.com. A Tiger Mom is “a mother who is overly strict with her child in order to foster an academically competitive spirit,” according to urbandictionary.com.
The author of "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother," Amy Chua, said on her website, “With all that said, the book does have a point of view. While I definitely have regrets, if I had to raise my girls all over again, I guess I would basically do the same thing, with some adjustments.”
She said people in America can ask more of their children than they typically do, and those children will not only respond to the challenge, but thrive. She thinks parents should assume strength in their children, not weakness.
The debate on how to educate children has become a fierce controversy worldwide. In “Are Tiger Moms Better than Cool Moms?” the Atlantic reported Stanford researches Alyssa Fu and Hazel Markus wrote, “These findings underscore the importance of understanding cultural variation in how people construe themselves and their relationships to others.”
They found Asian-American students saw their mothers’ involvement as support, while European-American students felt their mothers’ involvement was unwanted pressure. The researchers concluded both parenting styles “Tiger Mom” and “Cool Mom” can be effective, and the “key is in how the child views his or her relationship with the mother,” reported the Atlantic.
There are some people agree with the methods of the tiger mom in educating their children. Yang Li, a junior from China majoring in supply chain, said, “I believe that parents have a responsibility to teach their children to be responsible and contributing citizens. If children need to be taught in strict way to be succeed, I will surely do it.”
However, Amulek Ming Wei Yu, a junior in supply chain from Taiwan, thought that parents should not teach children in the way of the tiger mother. “I feel children might not be independent in the future if parents always tell them what they need to do.”
Joyce Henderson, senior missionary on BYUH campus, worked as a speech therapist both in primary school and in private practice in Orem, Utah. She said, “I have read the book and I enjoyed thinking about the differences in the way we raised our seven children. Even though tiger mom was strict and sometimes cruel, it shows that children are resilient and can grow even in a very strict environment if they know the parents are consistent and love them.”
Henderson said she did not use that way in her family. Her style was not so strict, and love was the first rule in her family. Children were safe and cared for.
Thinking about how to educate their children, Sidney Henderson, the husband of Joyce Henderson, said, “I believe that a child needs to have the consistent guidance of loving parents and to be given choices as they grow. A child should learn the values of the family and what is acceptable behavior.”
He said some examples of acceptable behavior in their family were, "Our family goes to church on Sunday" and "We do not yell or fight in our home" and "You will have time to play when you finish your jobs at home and you finish your homework."
The Henderson tried to give their children choices about small things at first, like "What color would you like your bed?" and "What can we do this Saturday as a family that will be fun for you?”
As parents, they always tried to understand their children’s talents and desires and help to grow them in the right direction. “We supported them by going to their basketball games and if one loved to build things then sometimes we would find toys that would help this talent grow,” she said.
The Hendersons said they showed children their love and faith in Heavenly Father and showed them how to pray and feel the Holy Spirit, she said. Otherwise, there were certain expectations, such as going to school and church, being kind to other people, getting good grades in school, and working to save for missions and college.