A revealing moment for me occurred during a recent radio interview. The host asked me how East Asian parents deal with their children’s learning in school. After I had been responding briefly, he chimed in with a knowing tone: “So East Asian parents must be immune to whining!” I believe that my host’s internal thinking
American Education in Cross-Cultural Perspective
The book brought a torrent of disagreement…even invective. One reader had the book shredded and sent the slivers to author Amy Chua. Chua wrote that Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother was supposed to be about how Chinese parents are better at raising kids, but it turned out to be about a bitter clash of
My only clear memory of studying for my Master of Arts in Teaching degree – this was longer ago than you’ve probably been alive – is my ah-ha! moment of realizing that much more emphasis was being given to motivating pupils than to teaching content. After I became a classroom teacher, I definitely “got” the
When did the “homework wars” begin? Decades ago. They heated up during 2006, when two books critical of homework appeared. One was The Case Against Homework, with chapter 3 entitled “The Family Fallout: From Parent to Taskmaster.” The other was The Homework Myth, with chapter 1 entitled “Missing Out on Their Childhoods.” About the first,
Research out of the University of California at Berkeley is worrying some parents. It found that youngsters who attended an “academic-oriented preschool” for about eight months outperformed peers who had received no such program. Gains were substantial, especially for Black children. “Academic preschool” means that teachers spend some class time on activities that emphasize language,