Math At Home

     In my English class I was assigned a piece on the differences between western parenting and Asian parenting styles. It was called “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior”, By Amy Chua. It was an incredibly interesting and controversial piece of writing because it said that Western parents are too lackadaisical when it comes to their children’s grades, relationships, and their activities. She argued that Chinese parents are stricter and more helpful when it comes to their children’s schoolwork and lives. A part of her writing that really stuck with me is that Chinese mothers will spend a lot more time helping their children with school work. A Chinese mother will not accept anything below an A. Anything below an A is considered failing in the Chinese household. It is also not unusual for the majority of Chinese children to get As. Chua said that in the American household where B’s are applauded, the low grade is the result of the parent’s fear of hurting their children’s feelings and also lack of serious time to study. Chua argues that there is too much of a focus on sports and extracurricular activities in the West. She says that the time and effort put forth into those activities would be more useful in academic pursuits. I agree with a lot of what Chua says. In the West, more specifically in the United States, most people are raised with the idea that math is really hard to understand and you are never going to use it. In China, there is not as much of a focus on understanding math as there is a focus on memorizing it. The Chinese say that understanding math comes through memorization. In the United States, math is taught through understanding. If parents put more effort into talking about math positively it would make their children think about math more positively. If in the West, like in China, parents sat down with their children and studied until they really understood math, the children would not be as afraid of it. It would just be another subject they had to learn. I think that the Chinese ways of studying could also be a bit intense and create feelings of negativity about math. But the idea of focusing on the subject more often is a good one. The more time you spend with something the more familiar it becomes, and the less afraid of it you are. I think if the west adopted some of the Chinese ideals in studying math, we would be better off.