The Observer - раздел Образование, ENGLISH FOR FUTURE TEACHERS
Amy Chua Claims That Soft Western Parenting Fails Because...
Amy Chua claims that soft western parenting fails because it stops children from fulfilling their potential, whereas her hardline Chinese approach gets results. Journalist Toby Young and psychologist Oliver James have their say.
Toby Young, journalist and campaigner for “free schools”: The problem with western parents, Amy Chua says, is that we assume our children are fragile, delicate creatures. We think they'll be permanently damaged if we push them too hard or express our disappointment if they're under-achieving. Chinese mothers, by contrast, will chastise and ridicule their children, confident that they're strong enough to take it. “Chinese parents demand perfect grades because they believe that their child can get them,” she writes. “If their child doesn't get them, the Chinese parent assumes it's because the child didn't work hard enough. That's why the solution to substandard performance is always to excoriate, punish and shame the child.”
A lot of this is exaggerated, of course, and I'm sure many Chinese mothers will resent being stereotyped in this way. But I like Chua's lack of ambivalence about her own values. She knows her own achievements are based on back-breaking labour – she's a professor of law at Yale – and wants her daughters to be as successful as her. She doesn't have any truck with the trendy notion that children should be allowed to flower in their own way. Her daughters aren't allowed on sleepovers, they've never watched TV or played computer games and they've never appeared in school plays.
And, yes, they always get As. Apart from in drama and PE, which don't count.
She claims that Chinese children make for more robust adults, having been galvanised in the hot-house of the Chinese parenting academy. The problem with constantly boosting our children's self-esteem, telling them they're budding little geniuses when they manage to add 2 + 2, is that we're setting them up for a fall. We send them out into the world with an inflated idea of their own abilities and the moment they come face to face with a tough competitor – one of Ms Chua's daughters, for instance – they collapse like a house of cards. Bye-bye, self-esteem. Hello, depression.
This sounds like a good reason to be a bit tougher on our children, but is it? You're the psychologist, you tell me.
Oliver James, psychologist and author: Chua is right that the great majority of exceptional achievement in many domains is the product of hothousing, not in our genes. Whether it be the Williams sisters, Michael Jackson (who, along with his brothers, was whipped by his father if he did not come straight home from school and practise singing and dancing until bedtime for every day of his childhood) or Tiger Woods, such stars' parents hijacked them as vehicles for their own ambitions by coercing them to focus on a particular skill to the exclusion of any other gratifications from a very young age. While the vast majority of prodigies do not go on to be exceptional adults, it's true hothousing is the main cause of exceptional skills in most fields. For instance, studies of musicians show that from childhood onwards, compared with "mere" orchestral players, soloists practised for more hours, under more pressure to do so, from earlier ages.
The evidence also shows that indiscriminately positive praise for children, as opposed to praise for specific efforts, leads to bloated, unreal self-esteem and is one of the reasons for the epidemic of narcissism now afflicting the USA.
However, there is also very robust evidence that offspring of perfectionist, over-controlling parents whose love is conditional on performance do worse than ones whose parents love them for "who they are".
It's not just that such children are at much greater risk of depression, anxiety, eating disorders and substance abuse. Overall, paradoxically, they actually do worse academically.
Presumably we agree that we both want mentally healthy offspring who have the skills to do well in fields they enjoy…..
Государственное образовательное учреждение... высшего профессионального образования... Алтайская государственная педагогическая академия...
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VOCABULARY
living cell of society – живая ячейка общества
to share smth. – делить что-то, делиться чем-то
responsibility – ответственность, обязанность
to start a fa
Step-brother
to marry smb. – жениться (на ком-л.); выходить замуж (за кого-л.); вступать в брак
to acquire a new family – обзаводиться новой семьей
nuclear family – малая семья; семья, состоящ
Answer the questions.
1. How big is your family? What type of family is it? Are you married? 2.Do you have any brothers or sisters? Are you the oldest among your siblings? How old are they? 3. Do you ha
Household chores
There are stereotypical responsibilities of the husband, the wife, and the children in a family. They say that the wife’s responsibilities are, basically, to do everything, as far as I can see … to
Read and translate the text. Headline it.
Nowadays, I don’t have very close contact with my father and mother, and I hear news from my brother. Sometimes I get a letter from my grandmother as well. Also, occasionally, we te
My Own Rules for a Happy Marriage
(abridged)
by James Graver Thurber
Nobody, I hasten to announce, has asked me to formulate a set of rules for the perpetuation of marital bliss and the preservatio
Children after School
What do American children do if they don't stay after school for extracurricular activities but come home to an empty house? It is actually not only an American problem, it is a universal problem b
Обращение.
Форма обращения в письме зависит от степени знакомства или родственных связей с лицом, которому вы адресуете письмо. Так, к друзьям или хорошо знакомым вы обращаетесь:
Dear
Vocabulary
It doesn’t matter what your home is like – Не имеет значения (неважно), какой у Вас дом
country mansion – большой загородный дом (особняк)
modest – скромный
detached hous
My Flat
It does not matter what your home is like — a country mansion, a more modest detached or semi-detached house, a flat in a block of flats or even a room in a communal flat. Anyway, it is the place w
Use the required word in each gap.
1. A _________ helps us to move from one floor to another.
2. A _________ contains generally a bed, a desk and a chest of drawers and a wardrobe. We use it to sleep.
3. We usually
The House of My Dream
People always want to make their dwelling a place, where one feels comfortable and ________ .
A dwelling of my dream is not a _________ but a two-storeyed mansion. And as a real hostess I’
Do the following crossword puzzle.
Across:
2. Devices and services that give comfort.
7. A comfortable chair which has a support on each side for your arms.
11. A long passage in a buildin
Find an extra word in each line.
It is difficult to generalize about how British people use of the various rooms (1) _________
in their houses. The only safe generalization is that, what in a house with two floors, (2) __
Answer the questions.
1. Can you describe each room of your house? 2. What does the outside of your house look like? 3. Do you like the place where you are living? Why or why not? 4. What is your favorite room in your h
Choose the right variant.
1. At the moment he _______ a book.
1) is to read
2) are reading
3) am read
4) is reading
2. Yesterday from 5 till 8 we
Houses, not flats
A large, detached house not only ensures privacy. It is also a status symbol. At the extreme end of the scale there is the aristocratic ‘stately home’ set in acres of garden. Of course, such a hous
Vocabulary
leisure (spare) time – свободное время, досуг
to have spare time – иметь свободное время
to spend leisure time – проводить свободное время
to rest – отдыхать
to
Answer the questions.
1. What do you usually do in your free time? 2. Do you often watch TV? 3. What is your favourite TV channel? 4. What is your favourite TV program? 5. Do you often read books? 6. What is your favour
Put in model verbs or their equivalents.
1. My uncle ________ swim very well.
2. I ________ do it right now.
3. ________ I call him later?
4. We ________ go with you, because you will need helper
Translate into English.
1. Я не должен идти туда.
2. Ее двоюродная сестра хорошо умеет играть на гитаре.
3. Можно я пойду домой?
4. Скоро ты сможешь декорировать свою новую комна
I left the room after I had written the test.
Mr Loveday went out of the room. Then they started discussing the news. Jenny finished her composition. Then she began to clean the floor. I selected a pair of fashionable g
Choose the right variant among the given ones.
1. Right now I ___ a test in English.
a) write b) was writing c) will be writing d) am writing
2. Some years ago Bob ___ very good at skiing.
Pre-reading focus.
- What is a hobby? What hobbies do you know?
- Write down the definition of the word “hobby”.
- Make out a list of hobbies.
7.4 Read the text “Hobbies”.
Read and translate the text.
A Nation of Animal Lovers:
Do you have a pet? It is no secret that British people love their pets to bits and would do anything to make their life enjoyable. But j
Popular Sports and Leisure Activities in Britain
Over recent decades the number and range of available leisure activities has mushroomed, in Britain. It is fair to say that Britain, in common with most Western countries, has becom
The Use of Leisure
By the way in which a man uses his leisure his character can be told - more surely in all probability than by the way he does his work. For most men work is necessity in order to gain a living. Vas
Read and translate the text.
There’s no need to agonies over where and when to take break next year: there are month-by-month vacation charts suggesting holidays each month to suit all tastes, from beaches, ski
Read and translate the text.
The most significant economic change for many countries of the world has been the development of mass tourism since World War II. Tourism is a risky business: capital investment can
Tel. 0567 5967944 for further information.
While writing, use informal punctuation, such as exclamation marks.
Use contractions.
Start a new paragraph for each main point you want to make.
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