Tiger Moms

Still in Indiana; 10 days until our departure for Amsterdam.  I just read the review of the book, "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother" by Amy Chua, in Time magazine. I have not read the book yet, and I am not sure I will.  I will be interested to see if this book is getting any play in Western Europe. To sum the main points of her book, according to Time:  American parents insulate their children too much from discomfort and distress; we assume fragility rather than strength; we slather too much praise on our children, for even the lowest of tasks; we all think our kids are "gifted" or "talented", rather than emphasizing hard work; we don't require our kids to drill enough on basic skills; we let our children off too easily, don't demand enough.
Have average middle class American children (and their parents) become lazy, averse to hard work? Too involved with TV, internet games, and other forms of entertainment?  Absolutely. Should we emphasize math more in public education? Yes. Do we over-protect our children and set our expectations too low?  Probably.  Should we set higher standards for our children and make sure they spend time each doing their homework? In many cases, yes. But is a narrowly-focused authoritarian, harsh, sometimes demeaning approach to parenting the answer?  I don't think so. As with many things in life, I think parenting and education is about finding a good balance-- striving for specific achievements and freedom to explore; accomplishing specific objectives and creativity; focused, hard work and flexibility; high expectations and acceptance; pleasing others and self-acceptance; future orientation and living one's whole life to the fullest.  Stepping back from the current obsession with standardized test scores, what kinds of persons do we want our kids to become?  That is a conversation we don't have often enough!