Amy Chua is a Wimp

David Brooks takes a uniquely balanced look at Amy Chua’s controversial comparison of American and traditional Chinese parenting. Chua’s recent Wall Street Journal article, “Why Chinese Mothers are Superior”, rapidly made its way across the country striking fear in the hearts of Americans. Brooks takes a different view: “I have the opposite problem with Chua. I believe she’s coddling her children. She’s protecting them from the most intellectually demanding activities because she doesn’t understand what’s cognitively difficult and what isn’t.” How can this be?

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Want to get your kids into college? Let them play

Wow! Stop the presses! This headline says it all. Erika Christakis and Nicholas Christakis are Masters of one of Harvard’s residential houses. They see a distinct difference between students with a play-based preschool and early childhood background and those from “drill and kill” schools. Not only do they feel play is critical to the development of young children, they “wonder why play is not encouraged in educational periods later in the developmental life of young people — giving kids more practice as they get closer to the ages of our students.”

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Jeremy Rifkin on “the empathic civilization”

Jeremy Rifkin takes a look at the evolution of the brain and how these trends point to the need for change in our societal institutions – government, parenting, business practices, and – you guessed it – our educational system! He argues that we are all empathic beings meant to embrace the singularity and precious nature of all life. At Valley Charter School we believe deeply in educating the whole child, focusing on social/emotional development, community responsibility, and academic growth.

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