Why Chinese Parents are Superior

[Ibby]

NONE of my Taiwan classmates whose parents were like this (and most of their parents were like this) are what I would call happy, or secure, or even, ususally, smart. as David Brooks put it in his NYtimes op-ed:

"I believe she’s coddling her children. She's protecting them from the most intellectually demanding activities because she doesn't understand what's cognitively difficult and what isn't.... Practicing a piece of music for four hours requires focused attention, but it is nowhere near as cognitively demanding as a sleepover with 14-year-old girls. Managing status rivalries, negotiating group dynamics, understanding social norms, navigating the distinction between self and group — these and other social tests impose cognitive demands that blow away any intense tutoring session or a class at Yale."
...
"mastering these arduous skills is at the very essence of achievement. Most people work in groups... Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Carnegie Mellon have found that groups have a high collective intelligence when members of a group are good at reading each others' emotions — when they take turns speaking, when the inputs from each member are managed fluidly, when they detect each others' inclinations and strengths. Participating in a well-functioning group is really hard."