How children should be raised
1: Give an account of childraising principles as presented in the three texts.
The first text I would like to start from is the one called "Why I love my strict Chinese mom", by the 18-year-old Sophia Chua-Rubbenfeld.
Many things have been written about Sophia’s mother, and that is why she decided to write an essay to her mother, to convince the critics that they were wrong. In this essay, she is writing about her mother’s upbringing from her point of view and that she is very thankful for her, because her strict parenting has forced her to be more independent. In the essay, she tells us some of the childraising principles her mother used on her.
When she got to high school, her mother realized that she needed to grow up. All the girls in her school started using makeups and that is why she took Sophia to a drugstore to buy some makeup and taught her to use it. Another thing is that the mother taught Sophia to live life to the fullest. She was not satisfied, when Sophia did not do her best at something and therefore she taught her to push her body, to the limits of her potential.
Her father has also had an impact on her upbringing. He taught her not to speculate about people’s opinion and to make her own decisions.
The other text is the one called "Let them eat pizza: Parenting guru's recipe for bringing up children", by Kate Loveys. Dr Bryan Caplan is the opposite of “Tiger Mum”. When it comes to parenting children, Dr Bryan Caplan thinks that parents often try to control every side of their children’s lives. He claims that they are overcharging themselves for their kids, and he easily thinks that they can improve their children’s development without harming them.
He states that parents should “cut themselves some slack” with means be less critical or harsh against someone. Then he also calls for a relaxed and style of parenting. He wants them to let their kid do exactly what they want, eat pizza, watching all the TV they will and don’t make them do things they hate. Parents should stop being critical at their kids, and stop forcing them to successful adults, because he thinks it is impossible. The last text is the one called "Summerhill – a radical approach to child rearing", by A.S. Neil. A.S. Neil has written an article about the bad things about learning. He is not saying that learning isn’t important. It is, but not for everybody. He mentions a Russian ballet dancer, who could not enter the State Ballet, because he could not pass the exams. He believes that it ruins the children more than it benefits and he points out the children’s creativity ahead of their skills in school.