yeah you know, the Davos World Economic Forum,
where the best and the brightest get together to
This year we have a Larry Summers vs. Amy Chua smackdown on parenting and education.
Ms. Chua seems to be this year's hot Davos celebrity
like Bono and Angelina Jolie have been in the past
In Davos this week, Ms. Chua shuttled busily from one klieg-lit event to another, as much in media demand as any penurious head of state or gauzy movie star. A separate publishing phenomenon might explore the reasons her thesis has chimed so loudly with Americans. My own theory is simple. The engaging Ms. Chua has captured in perfect synthesis the two things middle-age Americans now fear most—China, and their own children.
But in spite of being this year's Davos "it girl", she didn't best Mr. Summers in the debate.
Why A students become academics and C students become billionaire donors
Challenging Ms. Chua's academic achievement oriented parenting he asks
"Which two freshmen at Harvard have arguably been most transformative of the world in the last 25 years?" he asked. "You can make a reasonable case for Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, neither of whom graduated."
He goes on to explain
The A, B and C alums at Harvard in fact could be broadly characterized thus, he said: The A students became academics, B students spent their time trying to get their children into the university as legacies, and the C students—the ones who had made the money—sat on the fund-raising committee.
As I said in my previous post about Ms. Chua, I'm all for serious study. How else do you learn?
And I agree with her that achievement leads to self esteem, not the opposite.
But I also believe that intense academics need to be blended with a healthy dose of other activity be it sports, art, or whatever.
My son just scored a 99th percentile grade on his GMAT exam
and he did it without having been raised by a Superior Chinese Tiger Mother.
Well done my son.
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