Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother

We're happy to present this article from our partner site Yahoo! Shine:

In "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother," Yale law professor Amy Chua declared her "Chinese mother" parenting skills superior to those of lazy, touchy-feely "Western parents" and seems to say that pushing children to succeed academically is the best way to guarantee their success later in life. Longtime educator Carol Cooke says that she agrees — up to a point.

Related: The Opposite of a Tiger Mother? Leaving Your Children Behind

"We all want our children to succeed academically because today, more than ever, education is the key to success. Holding high expectations and communicating those expectations to our children on a regular basis is a point on which Amy Chua and I absolutely agree," Cooke told Yahoo! Shine in an interview. "Our points of view diverge on what comes after that, and the differences are clearly cultural."

Learn more about this new parenting technique after the jump.

Lots of moms like to think out loud and trixie360 is one of them. In her latest post to her Nice Mommy, Mean Mommy blog, she takes on Amy Chua's Tiger Mom.

These are my confessions.

1. When Kid 1 was 3 years old, his favorite movie was Jaws.
2. Kid 2 wouldn't eat vegetables for the first five years of her life. And I didn't make her eat them.
3. I give Kid 3 too many cookies because she does a cute happy dance when she sees me taking it out of the package. Note: all other "coo-coos" are inferior to Tim Tams.
4. I accepted my husband's marriage proposal before Kids 1 and 2 had met him. Luckily they adore him.
5. Even though I vowed not to, when Kid 3 needs something I completely tune out the teenagers...even if they're in the middle of a sentence.
6. Some days I'm just too tired to fight the "my tummy hurts can I stay home from school" battle, and let her stay home.
7. I haven't taken the baby to the dentist yet. (She's 19 months old)
8. I swear like a sailor. Apparently you're not supposed to do this in front of kids. Kid 1 curses, Kid 2 does not. I swore I heard Kid 3 say "shit" the other day.
9. I'm a slob. After work, dinner, etc. I have approximately 90 minutes to hang out with the kids before the little one goes to bed. I don't spend it doing housework.
10.  I'm not a Tiger Mother. Kid 1 is smart enough for an Ivy League college. If I'd pushed him harder maybe he'd be at Harvard instead of Bellevue College. Kid 2 is an amazingly fast runner. I should have forced her to do track. Hopefully Kid 3 will not have to bear the brunt of my regrets with the first two.

Still, my kids are all pretty good. A bit lazy, yes. Sometimes they lie to me. But so far none of them have been brought home by the cops, gotten pregnant or impregnated anyone, and 1 out of 3 has graduated high school.

So perhaps I'm not that bad.

Last night in progressive San Francisco, author Amy Chua read and accepted questions (even a compliment) during a lively and candid appearance at Booksmith. The mother caused quite a stir when a portion of her book, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, was excerpted in the Wall Street Journal. Here are some of the event's highlights:

• Chua's daughter Lulu suggested these alternate titles for the book. "The Perfect Child and the Flesh Eating Devil" and "Why Oldest Children Are Better."
• The memoir was born after a terrible blowup Chua had with Lulu. The author wrote "practically the whole book in two months."
• "I showed every page I wrote to both my daughters and my husband. It was basically like family therapy. It was a cathartic process." — Chua on how her family feels about the book.
• "No. I did not write or know the headline and I do not believe that Chinese parenting is superior." — Chua on the title of the WSJ excerpt.
• When Lulu refused to try Russian caviar, Chua called her "an uncultured savage."
• When asked if she would write a "mommy book, part two," Chua replied, "Definitely not!"
• "This book — and this is the important part, this is the story of our family's journey and my own transformation as a mother. It's a memoir. It is not a how-to-book." — Chua on clarifying the type of text she wrote.