tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8446351548038522890.post4052758762272678040..comments2024-03-28T16:15:19.319-04:00Comments on Saideman's Semi-Spew: The Politics of ParentingSteve Saidemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09881915512311951902noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8446351548038522890.post-87772241561970707422011-01-18T17:45:22.273-05:002011-01-18T17:45:22.273-05:00I've often thought one of the healthiest thing...I've often thought one of the healthiest things my parents ever did is they allowed me to skip school from time to time for things like family trips, or even to go watch the NCAA tournament with them.<br /><br />This shocked some of my friends, and some of their parents... but why should it have? None of my teachers cared. I was a good student, what difference did missing 1 or 2 days of school over the course of a long school year make? Traveling and participating in big cultural events is a learning experience, too. <br /><br />School is not EVERYTHING, work is not EVERYTHING, sometimes - not frequently, but when there's a good excuse - we all need to take a break and indulge. This is important to having a healthy, balanced life, and I'm glad my parents taught me this lesson.Fairfaxnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8446351548038522890.post-40877144896649639772011-01-18T12:02:33.952-05:002011-01-18T12:02:33.952-05:00Interestingly, I heard an NPR interview with Chua ...Interestingly, I heard an NPR interview with Chua about the book. Prior to the interview, I had read the excerpt of the book published in the Wall Street Journal, under the article title "Chinese Moms Are Superior."<br /><br />In the interview, she pretty much repudiated everything she said in the article. She was essentially saying that the excerpt of the book that the WSJ piece came from was a description of a particular kind of parenting - one which she had wrestled with and ultimately largely repudiated by the end of the book.<br /><br />What I'm surprised nobody has pointed out here is that, regardless of what Chua actually thinks or what conclusions her entire book reaches, this is a BRILLIANT book marketing campaign. She's rich now, and has demonstrated in a different context what Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh and so many others have shown: you can make a ton of money by saying really far-out things that are bound to offend people.Bill Ayresnoreply@blogger.com