In Defense of Tiger Mothers Everywhere

Amy Chua, the author of the Wall Street Journal essay Why Chinese Mothers Are Su
perior recently released her memoir Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. Since publi
cation, Chua has been under virtual attack by guilty parents and spoiled childre
n around the globe.
Amy Chua claims Chinese mothers are superior, and any way you cut it, she is rig
ht.
The Chinese mother does make the difference in her child's education and lifesty
le choices, because she is willing to say "NO" and stick to that hated word.
I left a comment at Avitable.com and a few other Blogs and cited statistics in s
upport of Tiger Mothers. The host said, "Did you know that 90% of people can mak
e up statistics on the spot?"
Then Adam Health Avitable says, "I have a BA in East Asian Studies and a doctora
te, so I'm not ignorant in any fashion." If you visit his Blog, you will soon di
scover that he also says he is a lawyer, a nude model, a humorist, a geek and is
single.
Hey Adam Avitable, about a year ago, Business Insider.com published, "It's Offic
ial, Asian-American Students Work Way Harder to Become More Educated Than Everyo
ne Else" then went on to say Asian-American students take far more Advanced Plac
ement (AP) classes during high school than most other Americans.
In fact, information gathered at City Data.com supports Amy Chua and Tiger Mothe
rs.
I used the Academic Performance Index (API) in California to rank and compare fo
ur high schools. Although Chinese are the largest Asian minority in the US, they
are not listed separately but are included with five other Asian groups, which
are Chinese, Filipino, Asian Indian, Vietnamese and Koreans.
Today there are about 12 million Asians in the US. As a group, Asian-Americans
outperform all other racial groups.
At Rowland Unified School District's Nogales High School, 76% of the student pop
ulation is listed as Hispanic and 11% as Filipino. The Filipino/Asian students
averaged 790 on the API while the Hispanic students averaged 627.
At Oakland High School, three ethnic groups are listed. African Americans make u
p 26% of the student population with an API average of 517; Asians are 53% of st
udents with an API of 667 and Hispanics are 16% of the student population with a
n API of 519.
At Los Lomas High School, 74% of the student population is white with an API ave
rage of 851 while the 11% Asian population averages 861.
At Gunn High School in Palo Alto, California, 53% of the students are white with
an API average of 895. Asians make up 32% of students and average 921 on the A
PI.
From the Asian American Alliance, I learned that the Asian population in the US
has the highest marriage rate among all other ethnic groups at 60.2% compared to
the national average of 54.4%.
Education.com says that Asian American students generally fare better than other
racial minority groups in respect to grade point averages, standardized test sc
ores, or even numbers of high school, bachelor, and advanced degrees obtained co
mpared to other racial minorities (NationalCenter for Education Statistics, 2003
; U.S. Census Bureau, 2003).
Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU) says, "Contrary to popular belief, Asian
-Americans very much experience racism in America, and are often lost in the â black
and whiteâ dichotomy that dominates racial issues in the U.S. There is often resent
ment by both Caucasians and minority groups towards Asian-Americans because of t
heir perceived â successâ as minorities."
Could the virtual outcry against Amy Chua as a Tiger Mother be part of this rese
ntment?
In addition, NEIU reports that statistics for Asian-American with HIV/AIDS shows
that Asians have the lowest case rate in America with 4 per 100,000 compared to
58.2 per 100,000 for African-Americans, 10 per 100,000 for Hispanics and 6.2 pe
r 100,000 for whites.
The U.S. National Library of Medicine/National Institutes of Health reported tha
t Chinese have the lowest ATOD (alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use) rates in t
he United States.
Last, the teenage birth rate per 1,000 women 15 to 19 was three for South Korea,
four in Japan and five for China â the lowest teen pregnancy rates in the world.
In the United States, that teenage birth rate was 53 per 1000 women 15 to 19.
The facts say Asian Tiger Mothers are better.
______________
Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid C
oncubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and cul
ture too.