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Recently Amy Chua, a professor at Yale University law school, created a sensation with an article published in the Wall Street Journal, entitled “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior.” The article was a promotional piece for her book, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, which has become an instant bestseller. Chua promotes what she calls a method of “tiger mothering,” which is meant to counterbalance the Western style of parenting, which she sees as overly permissive and coddling. Here is a list of things “tiger mother” Chua has never allowed her two daughters, Sophia and Louisa, to do:
- Attend a sleepover
- Have a play date
- Be in a school play
- Complain about not being in a school play
- Watch TV or play computer games
- Choose their own extracurricular activities
- Get any grade less than an A
- Not be the number 1 student in every subject except gym and drama
- Play any instrument other than the piano or violin
- Refuse to take piano or violin lessons
Dying to teach
Education International reports that in 2007 a 42-year-old university lecturer in Iran, Abdolreza Ghanbari, was detained for 120 days and suspended from teaching for six months. He was arrested again in January 2010 and charged with moharebeh (enmity toward God) for receiving unsolicited e-mails from an armed opposition group to which he does not belong. Ghanbari was imprisoned at the notorious Evin Prison and was interrogated for 25 days in a row. He was condemned to death in April 2010 and has been on death row ever since.
Last May, Rasoul Bodaghi, a detained member of the Iranian Teachers’ Trade Association of Tehran, was reported to have been severely beaten by two prison officers. In January 2011, the Appeal Court confirmed a six-year imprisonment sentence and forbade him to be involved in social activities for five years.
