Would you ever force your 7-year-old daughter to practice a single musical piece on the piano for hours on end, through dinner, into the night, without breaks for water or even the bathroom? No? What if it would guarantee your child would become a thriving adolescent, top of their class and viable in the ever-increasingly competitive job market of a globalized economy? Any second thoughts? 

These are the questions that are being raised by the recently released book, “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother,” written by Yale Law Professor Amy Chua, a self-described “Tiger Mother.” 

Despite Chua’s claims of raising superior children under a Chinese form of parenting, I would never as a parent subject my children to such treatment for the prize of a higher grade. No American parent should act as Chua, sacrificing the individualism and creativity of our children that have kept our country as strong as it has for so long. 

But you’re wondering why you should care. You, as a student, probably don’t have any children of your own. Neither would I wish to have any of my own anytime soon. However, we are students raised and educated in America. We are dependent upon job security generated by an educated economy force, and we have the voting power to put policymakers into office to make it so. 

Unfortunately, as with many provocative writings bolstered by nationalistic anxiety, the book will cause reactionaries and politicians to make short sighted claims about competing with Chinese math and science superiority. When we look at the most recent global statistics we can begin to understand why certain individuals would react in such a manner. 

Time magazine recently reported that American students were mired in the middle: 17th in reading, 23rd in science, and 31st in math – 17th overall.

But, as Americans we cannot so hastily react to feelings of inferiority. Though we have been falling behind in math and science, Americans consistently excel beyond all nations in creativity and individualism. 

These two traits have been key concepts to some of the greatest American minds and pioneers. Ben Franklin, Thomas Edison and Martin Luther King Jr. all possessed great intellects, but they all also possessed the creativity and individual drive to push the boundaries of the status quo. 

I am not saying that as a country we become complacent with what we have and are up to at this point. We need to put more focus on the Sciences and Mathematics, but we have to do so in such a way that makes sense.

Simply throwing money at the problem and tightening standards does not guarantee success and only hampers the school systems in this country. It forces them to teach to unrealistic standards or set their own low-aiming standards to meet the quota of governmental funding. There have already been steps taken to push our country into this futile game of standardization (read: No Child Left Behind).

I think this continuing trend of standard escalation is exactly the mindset of Tiger Mothers, because nothing is ever good enough unless it is perfection.

What it comes down to is how you will eventually want to raise your children. Do you want to raise your child with an iron fist of continuous dissatisfaction? Should they be forced to decide their career path by the age of fourteen, with the government holding them accountable to stress-inducing stats and figures? Do we really want to confront this new threat by becoming our own enemy? 

The reason why China is able to produce such prominent math and science students is because they are a communist society. They are a country notorious for abusing and lacking civil liberties. Do we, the country of liberties, slowly take them away from our children because of our insecurities?

What becomes ironic then is that politicians are pushing for what seems to be a synthesis of China’s education, while they are pushing to become like us. “They are looking to the West for inspiration – not least because they know they must produce more creative and innovative graduates to power the high-end economy they want to develop,” said Annie Murphy Paul of Time magazine.

Americans must hold true to our traditional parenting and education values instead of becoming Tigers ready to devour our offspring at the first sign of failure. Those clamoring for higher test results and tougher teaching practices lack the resourceful mind for new solutions besides being slave drivers. 

We must push our nation’s youth, education system and politicians to strive for better results, but without sacrificing individualistic and creative minds. Even one of the smartest men the world had to offer, Albert Einstein, understood why our values of creativity must never be forgotten: “The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.”