Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior: Because Their Daughters Get Into Harvard, That’s Why
For those of you eagerly awaiting a very public failure from one of Tiger Mom Amy Chua’s prodigy offspring–like a crack cocaine bender or half-naked photos leaked onto the Internet–so that you can feel better about your own parenting-style/feel better about the lax way in which you were parented/feel better about the strict way in which you were parented that weirdly didn’t yield the same sort of results/feel better about the fact that “the Chinese way” isn’t better therefore you don’t have to confront your diminishing place in the global power structure/oh hell, just feel better about yourself in general…
Um, better luck next year?
Because this year, Chua’s Number One Daughter, Sophia (pictured), has been accepted to Harvard–Chua’s alma mater and where she and her invisible husband, Jed Rubenfeld, received their law degrees–despite the fact that the university took only 6.2 percent of its undergraduate applicants for the Class of 2015, which was the lowest admissions rate of all the Ivies. And according to Above the Law, Sophia has already decided to matriculate there as well.
But hey, there’s still time for Lulu–Chua’s Number Two Daughter who teaches her Tiger Mother a humbling thing or two in the book–to be a fuck-up. And by that I mean, of course, go to Yale (my alma mater) or–god forbid–Brown, where grades are optional, D’s don’t exist, and failure is “not recorded,” a fact that no Tiger Mom worth her stripes could even begin to comprehend.
Because failure, though not an option in Tiger Mom’s book, is nevertheless always, always recorded.
[via Above the Law]
Thanks, David!
Filed under: Allergic to Failure, Amy Chua, Amy Chua Tiger Mother, Asians Hate Failure, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, Class of 2015, Failure, Harvard, Harvard Law School, Harvard University, Jed Rubenfeld, Legacies, Louisa Chua-Rubenfeld, Lulu Chua-Rubenfeld, Sophia Chua-Rubenfeld, Tiger Cubs, Tiger Mom, Tiger Mom's Daughter Accepted To Harvard, Tiger Mom's Daughter Gets Into Harvard, Tiger Moms, Yale Law School
I really feel for the younger daughter. From my understanding of the book, isn’t she the underachieving “American” kid?
God help her if she can only get into Cornell.
Harvard may have only accepted 6.2% of the applicants, but what percentage of those accepted came from families where BOTH parents are alumni? Surely that had no impact, along with the connections her parents have at other prestigious universities and throughout the academic community, on her application status. The fame of her mother, both academically, in the field of law, and in a public/social arena of her child-rearing, American culture judging, best-selling novel I’m sure didn’t weigh into the opinions of those glancing at the application essay. Not to undermine Sophia’s work, she’s undoubtedly brilliant (to her own successes, not that of her mother’s parenting skills) but I’m sure it’s not simply her own merits that warranted her that ever-unreachable packet of acceptance.