Two new books have been published recently on the thorny issue of social mobility, one optimistic, suggesting various things parents can do to maximise their children’s chances of success, the other pessimistic, concluding that a child’s fate is more or less sealed at birth. Paradoxically, the optimistic book is incredibly depressing, while the pessimistic one is quite reassuring.
The first book is The Triple Package by the husband and wife team of Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld. The authors, who are both law professors at Yale, identify three characteristics that America’s most successful cultural groups have in abundance: a superiority complex, insecurity and impulse control.
The message is essentially the same as Chua’s previous book, The Battle Cry of the Tiger Mother, which is that if you want your child to do well you have to duplicate the kind of upbringing Chua had at the hands of her Chinese immigrant parents. First, you must instil them with a sense of ethnic or religious pride — in Chua’s case, her parents told her that their civilisation was greater than any other. Second, drum into them that unless they work hard and do well they’ll bring shame upon their families and, ultimately, their tribe. Third, use every opportunity to teach them the benefits of delayed gratification. That means no sweets, no TV and no sleep-overs, at least not until they’ve done their daily 90 minutes of piano practice.
I have to confess, I find much to admire in this parenting philosophy. I particularly like Chua and Rubenfeld’s withering analysis of ‘self-esteem’, the one thing American schools seem to teach really well — possibly the only thing. For instance, a 1989 international survey of maths and science skills found that 68 per cent of American high school students thought they were good at maths (the highest percentage of any country), compared with just 23 per cent of South Korean students.
Comments
Join the debate for just £1 a month
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for £3.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just £1 a monthAlready a subscriber? Log in