Why chinese mothers are superior Essay Example for Free

Why chinese mothers are superior Essay How do you raise your child in the best way? Is it the Western or Chinese methods to prefer? That is the big question in this article. Amy Chua takes her starting point in her own life, where she raises her two daughters, Sophia and Louisa. Their upbringing is influenced by the Chinese methods. Amy Chua never allowed them to attend a sleepover or get any grade less than an A for instance. 1 The sender of this article is the 50-year old Chinese woman, Amy Chua, who is a professor at Yale Law School, USA. She argues that the Chinese methods are the most effective way of raising a successful child. According to Amy, there are three main differences between Western and Chinese parenting. First of all, Western parents are concerned about their children’s’ psyches, while Chinese, roughly said, aren’t. For instance, if a child comes home with a B on the test, some Western parents would still praise their child. The Chinese mother would probably gasp in horror and start an immediate long and hard practice session. Secondly, Chinese parents believe that their kids owe them everything, while Western parents like Jed (her husband) has the opposite view. The Westerners will most likely say, the children don’t choose their parents and the children don’t owe their parents anything. â€Å"Their duty will be to their own kids†. 2 Third, Chinese parents know what is best for their children, while Western parents will probably say that the children must figure out themselves what’s best for them. As you can see, there is a huge cultural barrier between the Chinese and Western parenting. She uses studies in her article, which increases her credibility like, â€Å"In one study of 50 Western American mothers and 48 Chinese immigrant mothers, almost 70 % of the Westerns mothers said either that â€Å"stressing academic success is not good for children†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. By contrast, roughly 0 % Chinese mothers felt the same way†¦Ã¢â‚¬ 3 Even though she uses a lot of studies to increase her credibility, it is still important to notice that the article is entirely subjective. Throughout the story, you can sense that Amy Chua thinks the Chinese methods are the most effective way to raise a successful and happy child. It is exemplified in her story about Lulu, who tries intensively to learn a piano piece called â€Å"The Little White Donkey†. Lulu cannot do it in the beginning, because it is a very difficult piece of art for young players. That is not acceptable for Amy Chua, who keeps pushing and threatening her (according to Western mothers). According to Amy Chua, she is just motivating Lulu to achieve her goals. Amy Chua’s husband says, he does not want to see Lulu get insulted and mistreated like that. â€Å"Sophia could play that piece, when she was this age†, Amy responded. So Amy and Lulu continued practicing and all of a sudden, Lulu did it. Even Jed gave Amy credit for that one. Jed (as a Western parent) worries a lot about her self-esteem, because Amy pushes Lulu to the edge. But as a parent according to Amy, one of the worst things you can for your child’s self-esteem is to let them give up. â€Å"There’s nothing better for building confidence than learning you can do something you thought you couldn’t†. The story about Lulu and the title of the article provokes the reader. She uses a provocation for the intended reader, who is most likely parents in the USA, by naming the article â€Å"Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior† which demeans the reader’s parenting skills. It engages the reader to read the story, because they want to know why she would say such thing. Furthermore, Amy constantly compares the Western and the Chinese mothers and it is often to lead the reader in a certain direction. She uses the story to increase her credibility by telling the reader that the Chinese method is an effective way to success. The children must possess a strong psyche to survive the very rough Chinese methods of upbringing. The Chinese methods can have fatal consequences for the children. You can for instance lose your individuality as a human being by trying to satisfy everyone but yourself. You also lose the ability of self-realization, where you can do exactly what you want to do. The Chinese methods, roughly said, transform you into an object instead of a human being. It is documented that the methods cause psychological damage to a lot of children in China. The high suicide rates, depressions and rebellious behavior are a consequence of the very rough methods of upbringing. Lots of children’s academic excellence is â€Å"forced† rather than chosen. Some children may respond well to â€Å"Chinese mothering†, and hopefully for Amy Chua’s sake, her own daughters are among them. But on the other hand it is impossible to be â€Å"the No. 1 in every subject except gym and drama. †4 It is important to have diligence, but on the other hand, you’ve got to have some talent as well – especially, if you want to be the best at everything. Let me conclude by repeating that it is not healthy for every child to be forced to achieve academic excellence. You have to respect every child’s individuality and support their decisions, so they do not end up by doing something they actually do not want to do.

The Metamorphosis Symbolism

The Metamorphosis Symbolism The opening line of the story is shocking and bizarre. One morning, upon awakening from agitated dreams, Gregor Samsa found himself, in his bed, transformed into a monstrous vermin. In other words, Gregor is transformed overnight from a human being into a bug. Although it is unclear whether this metamorphosis is literal or figurative, this transformation is undoubtedly the focus of the entire story. Gregors lack of anxiety or panic upon recognizing his dreadful predicament is noteworthy. His conclusion that taking a later train to work will solve his problem is amusing. Taken literally, becoming an insect is reason to panic. His reaction suggests that the metamorphosis was subconscious; he did not literally change into a bug but rather gradually realized his status and felt like a bug. Eventually, however, Gregor realizes that he is just being used by his family. After this reality sinks in, symbolized by his agitated dreams, Gregory actually feels like a bug. He recognizes his isolation and alienation from society. The grand metamorphosis takes place, and eventually Gregor experiences a complete role reversal. He tries to catch the next train to work and to continue as he had before his realization. However, Gregor is so distraught that he cannot bring himself to get out of bed. Subconsciously he can no longer tolerate his familys treatment of him. However, it is only after his oversleeping that Gregor can begin to acknowledge his wasteful existence. Gregors oversleeping through agitated dreams represents his resentment of his pathetic situation. Before his transformation he would quickly jump out of bed to continue his miserable life without considering an alternative lifestyle. In his sleep however he is afforded the opportunity to momentarily escape life to contemplate his inner turmoil. The agitated dreams represent his pitiable existence; the oversleeping serves as the initial stage of Gregor recognizing this existence. Gregor is not the only character in this story that experiences a transformation. His parents and his sister are forced to change as well in order to adapt to their new circumstances. Upon realizing Gregors metamorphosis, his family leaves him in his room and isolates him, just as they had done in the past. His mother cant stand the sight of him, and they separate further. Gregors father is forced to return to work and thereby assumes the role of supporting the family. As long as Gregor was working, his father was unwilling to pursue a career; rather, he was content to let Gregor support the family all by himself. Thus, Gregors working allows Mr. Samsa to sit home all day doing nothing. It is only through Gregors inability to work that his father is forced to assume the role of supporting the family. Consequently, Gregors sickness and death facilitates his fathers career development. In his sickness, even his father cannot stand the sight of him and in disgust fatally wounds Gregor by throwing an apple at him. Kafka uses the apple to make a biblical allusion to symbolize the apple from the tree of knowledge. The apple represents Gregors awareness of his pitiful existence. His father throws the apple at him to show that Gregor is being rejected by his family. This new reality of alienation and isolation drives him to his ultimately fatal mental state. His fathers unhealthy dependence on his son leads Gregor to feel estranged. This alienation causes Gregor to manifest his feelings of worthlessness and isolation in a way that would affect his body. This mental breakdown eventually drives Gregor mad leading to his untimely death. Unlike Mr. Samsa, Gregorys sister cares for him and attempts to nurse him back to health by providing him with food and encouragement. However, even she is unable to put up with him after a while. She comments that the bug cannot possibly be Gregor as if it were he would have realized long ago that human beings cannot possibly live with such an animal and he would have left of his own accord. At that point, being completely stripped of his humanity and being, completely rejected by his family, Gregors transformation to a bug is complete. Ironically, Gregors miserable life of serving his family is better than the alternative. Once he can no longer provide for his family, life was not worth living. After Gregor is dead, the Samsas are relieved, and they make plans for their daughter to get married. As long as Gregor was alive, his family is unable to proceed through life and move on. Rather, they depended on Gregor for everything and made no effort to be productive. Their troubled relationship with Gregor was thereby harmful to the entire family. The numerous transformations in The Metamorphosis emphasize the importance of maintaining healthy relationships. The dysfunctional Samsa household relies on their son Gregory to support the entire family. This ridiculous role reversal not only causes Gregor to have a mental breakdown, but also prevents the rest of his family from pursuing their own careers. Only after Gregorys death is his family able to move on with life. Kafka uses the transformations in The Metamorphosis to reinforce the importance of maintaining healthy relationships. When people get caught in abusive relationships, their entire families fall apart. The important lessons that Kafka teaches in The Metamorphosis continue to have relevance today.

The Odyssey Essay example -- essays research papers fc

japanese-American During WWII By: Japanese immigrants and the following generations had to endure discrimination, racism, and prejudice from white Americans. They were first viewed as economic competition. The Japanese Americans were then forced into internment camps simply because of the whites fear and paranoia. The Japanese first began to immigrate to the United States in 1868. At first they came in small numbers. US Census records show only 55 in 1870 and 2,039 in 1890. After that, they came in much greater numbers, reaching 24,000 in 1900, 72,000 in 1910, and 111,000 in 1920.(Parrillo,287) Most settled in the western states.(Klimova,1) Many families in Japan followed the practice of primogeniture, which is when the eldest son inherits the entire estate. This was a â€Å"push† factor. Because of primogeniture, â€Å"second and third sons came to the United States to seek their fortunes.†(Parrillo,287) The promise of economic prosperity and the hope for a better lif e for their children were two â€Å"pull† factors. These foreign-born Japanese were known as Issei (first generation). They filled a variety of unskilled jobs in railroads, farming, fishing, and domestic services. (Klimova,1) The Japanese encountered hostility and discrimination from the start. In California, a conflict with organized labor was due to their growing numbers in small areas and racial visibility.(Parrillo,287) White workers perceived Japanese as economic competition. Their willingness to work for lower wages and under poor conditions brought on hostility from union members. The immigrants became victims of ethnoviolence. In 1890, Japanese cobblers were attacked by members of the shoe maker’s union, and Japanese restaurateurs were attacked by members of the union for cooks and waiters in 1892. It was very difficult to find steady employment; therefore, most of them entered agricultural work. They first worked as laborers, accumulated sufficient capitol, th en as tenant farmers or small landholders. Some became contract gardeners for whites.(Parrillo,287) The Japanese farmers were very knowledgeable of cultivation, which made them strong competitors against white farmers. More discrimination by the dominant group soon followed. â€Å"In 1913, the California legislator passed the first alien landholding law, prohibiting any person who was ineligible for citizenship from owning land in the state, and per... ...omic exploitation. After enduring such injustices and hardships, many are now enjoying the life the Issei dreamed of for their families. Bibliography Work Cited Parillo, Vincent N. Strangers to These Shors: Race and Ethnitc Relations in the United States. Needham Heights, : Massachuchetts: 2000, 287-289. Klimova, Tatiana A. â€Å"Internment of Japanese Americans: Military Necessity or Racial Prejudice.† Old Dominion University. 1-9 (5/2/00) Asia, Ask. â€Å"Linking The Past to Present: Asian Americans Then and Now.† The Asia Society 1996. 1-3 (5/1/00 Spickard, Paul R. Japanese Americans: The transformation and Formation of an Ethnic Group. New Yourk:1996,93-159 McWilliams, Carey. Prejudice Japanese Americans: Symbol of racial Intolerance. boston: 1945,106-190. Myer, Dillon S. â€Å"Joseph Yoshisuke Kurihara.† Upprinted Americans 1971. 1-5 (5/1/00) Asin, Stefanie.†Poignand Memories.† Houston Chronicle 7/31/95.1-3 5/2/00 Reaseach Center.†resea rch on 100th/442nd reginent conbat team.:NJAHS.1-2 5/2/00 Miyoshi, Nubu.:Idenity Crisis of the Sansei.†Sansei legacy project 3/13/98.1-21 5/1/00 Kiang, Peter.† Understanding the Perception of Asian Americans.† Asian Society1997.1-2 5/2/00 Word Count: 1862

The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Essay examples -- Threats to World Pea

The region of the Middle East frequently referred to as Palestine has long been the site of much conflict. In recent years, a major effort on the part of the International community has been employed in an attempt to bring peace to the troubled region, yet every time peace accords seem to be at hand, everything falls apart. In order to fully understand the enmity that keeps causing peace talks to break down, one must look at the roots from which the conflict stems. If the root of the issue can be clearly devised, then movements towards peace in the region will be much more succinct. Palestinian Development Under Turkish Rule Issues concerning Palestine’s development in socio-cultural and religious terms begin to become apparent to the modern world once the Turkish Empire moved into the region. The Seljuk Turks, a Muslim group, took control of Jerusalem in 1071. Their rule was characterized by struggles with the Christian crusaders of Europe. Seeking to better their own position, another group of Turks, the Fatimids (from Egypt) allied themselves with the crusaders, but were later betrayed. The betrayal led to the capture of Jerusalem and Jaffa in 1099 along with the slaughter of many Jewish and Muslim defenders at the hands of the Christian Crusaders. The Muslim leader, Saladin, attacked and gained control of Jerusalem finally evicting the Crusaders in 1291. His particular Muslim group was known as the Mamelukes, who were originally â€Å"soldier-slaves of the Arabs.† While their empire was far reaching, including Palestine, it was comprised primarily of Arab-speaking Muslims, althou gh Jews from Spain and the surrounding Mediterranean area began to settle in and around Jerusalem in the late 1300s. With the defeat... ...4). â€Å"What is the evidence that the United Nations is biased against Israel?†. http://palestinefacts.org/pf_faq_palestine_un_anti_israel_bias.php Palestine Facts. (2004). â€Å"What is the history and status of US support of Israel?†. http://palestinefacts.org/pf_ 1991to_now_israel_us_support.php â€Å"Palestine, region, Asia†. The Columbia Encyclopedia. 6th Ed. http://www.bartleby.com/65/pa/Palestin.html â€Å"Passfield White Paper†. http://palestinefacts.org/pf_mandate_whitepaper_1930.php Pipes, Daniel. (2001) â€Å"The Muslim Claim to Jerusalem†. The Middle East Quarterly.Vol 8:4. http://www.meforum.org/article/490 United Nations. â€Å"The Plan Of Partition And End Of The British Mandate†. The Question of Palestine and the United Nations†. http://www.un.org/Depts/dpi/palestine/ch2.pdf United Nations. â€Å"Question of Palestine†. http://www.un.org/Depts/dpa/ngo/history.html

Ovarian cancer :: essays research papers

My Aunt Kathie was diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer in 1993. She was 47 years old. I remember going to the hospital and visiting her. I even remember buying a troll nurse doll. I wasn’t allowed to see her, but my mom brought me in her room anyway. She had a private room and the nurses were very nice. They give me a surgical mask and scrubs to take home. My aunt was very sick. My aunt found out about the cancer after taking estrogen. The doctors thought she was going through menopause. She had not been getting her periods. She hadn’t been to the doctors in 21 years, since she gave birth to her son. My aunt also smokes. The doctors did no testing and just put her on this medication to regulate her periods. After four months, she did not get her period. She was experiencing severe cramps and bloating. She went to the doctor to get a second opinion. When the doctor examined her he noticed that she had a tumor. The doctor recommended an ultra sound. After going for several test and going to two hospitals. They found out that she had ovarian cancer. The tumor was the size of a grapefruit. My aunt would have to have a complete hysterectomy. A hysterectomy is when they remove all of your reproductive organs. After the operation the doctor said that they had gotten all of the cancer and that she would recover.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  After the hysterectomy, my aunt had to go through chemotherapy to make sure that the cancer did not grow back. She went to Staten Island University Hospital cancer unit to have the treatment. She went once a week for six hours. They gave her a chemical known as Taxol or taxane. This is a drug that slow downs cell growth by stopping cell division. Normal cells grow and die in a controlled way. When cancer occurs, cells in the body that are not normal keep dividing and forming more cells without control. Anticancer drugs destroy cancer cells by stopping them from growing or multiplying. Healthy cells can also be harmed, especially those that divide quickly. Harm to healthy cells is what causes side effects. These cells usually repair themselves after chemotherapy. After six months of treatment, they said she was free of all the cancer. My aunt at the time did not lose any hair and you wouldn’t know by looking at her that she had cancer.

Review of the research paper on effect of positioning program Essay

The paper entitled â€Å"The effect of positioning on spontaneous movements of pre term infants†, is a well tailored research paper on the effect of positioning program in the neonatal intensive care unit on the movement patterns of the new born. The abstract of the paper include a short sentence of the objective, a summary of methods and results and a sentence of concluding remarks. It would be better if this part is not having sub headings. The last line of the methods section of abstract has some problem in the sentence construction. â€Å"The data was analyzed by appropriate statistical methods† would be more ideal. The introduction clearly highlights the need for a position program by briefly explaining the drawbacks of hypotonic extension posture, which would be assumed by pre term babies normally and has compared that with the developments of a full-term infant. But the explanation is too elaborate. It could be briefed. In the second paragraph of the introduction the objective of the study is clearly expressed. But the objectives are in the question form. It would be better if it is in the form of sentences. The detailed description of the positioning mat and the different positions in which it was used would have better included under the methods section. In introduction is very long and it could be reduced a bit especially the first paragraph. The selection criteria used is not properly cited or a reason for using such a criteria is not given. In the method section the detailed description of the position mat and different positions would have been given in the beginning of the paragraph. The use of first person â€Å"we† in the paper is not recommended. As a whole the paper express a good quality research work with significant findings that could contribute substantially towards future studies in this line.

Friedrich Nietzsche’s Influence on Hitler Essay

Friedrich Nietzsche had broached the idea of Ubermensch (translated as â€Å"Superman†) as one of the core features of his philosophy. This idea which set the stage for individualism by touching on concepts of self-surpassing and self-mastery is explicitly propounded in his most famous work, Thus Spake Zarathustra where the protagonist, Zarathustra said: â€Å"I teach you the superman. Man is something that is to be surpassed. What have you done to surpass man? † â€Å"The Superman is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: The Superman shall be the meaning of the earth! I conjure you, my brethren, remain true to the earth, and believe not those who speak unto you of superearthly hopes! Poisoners are thy, whether they now it or not. Despisers of life are they, decaying ones and poisoned ones themselves, of whom the earth is weary: so away with them! (Nietzsche, 1999: 3)† This, together with another concept introduced by Nietzsche, the â€Å"will to power† had triggered in Hitler a narcissistic interpretation of Nietzsche’s philosophy where Hitler most certainly identified himself, and served as his justification for his concept of racial superiority. Although Nietzsche may not have intended to influence Hitler towards anti-Semitism, it was in his language to which Hitler’s distortion could be attributed. His use of the concepts â€Å"whole-man† and â€Å"half-man† as well as â€Å"master morality† and â€Å"slave morality† as means towards the achievement of a new order gave Hitler a ground for his Anti-Semitic ideas. Nietzsche believed that noble morality, in contrast to slave morality, contributed towards the improvement of the race. Nietzsche describes the nobles as people who see themselves as creators of civilization, saviors of the all and protectors of everyone from everything contemptible (Nietzsche, 1999). Meanwhile, the slaves are those who see the nobles as oppressive and themselves, the oppressed, being incapable of production and giving rise to their resentment towards creativity. As Hitler sees them, through their inherently oppressed status, they induce in the nobles a feeling of guilt and resentment towards their own superhuman status, hindering their own productivity and thus, serve as a bar against the realization of their full potential. To him, the salvation of humanity dwells only in the hands of the nobility and definitely not in the slaves. In Mein Kampf, Hitler writes: â€Å"A human community appears well organized only if it facilitates the labors of these creative forces in the most helpful way and applies them in a manner beneficial to all†¦ In this it must proceed from the principle that the salvation of mankind has never lain in the masses, but in its creative minds, which must therefore really be regarded as benefactors of the human race (Hitler, 1971: 367). † Compounded by Hitler’s narcissistic interpretation, his identification with the Superman, and his anti-Semitic philosophy, it is not surprising that Hitler would identify himself with the nobles who, applying Nietzsche’s concept of â€Å"will to power† and Nietzsche’s affirmation of the existence of destroyers of the earth who must be eliminated: â€Å"Poisoners are thy, whether they now it or not. Despisers of life are they, decaying ones and poisoned ones themselves, of whom the earth is weary: so away with them! (Nietzsche, 1999: 3)† must have felt the urge to cleanse the race from such impurities as the slaves who prevent the human race from reaching the zenith of civilization and whom he most likely associated with the Jews. His determination of the nobles and slaves in the real world can be best demonstrated in Mein Kampf: â€Å"The most unbeautiful thing there can be in human life is and remains the yoke of slavery. Or do these schwabing [? ] decadents view the present lot of the German people as ‘aesthetic’? Certainly we don’t have to discuss these matters with the Jews, the most modern inventors of this cultural perfume. Their whole existence is an embodied protest against the aesthetics of the lord’s image (Hitler, 1971; 154). † In Hitler’s mind, this â€Å"facilitation of the labor of creative forces† involves mass killings to an end of racial extinction. For Nietzsche, it is the Superman who would create a new morality in order to harness the will to power and destroy slave moralities. He believes that with an increase in greatness in a man, there is a contemporaneous increase in his wickedness and terribleness. This is justified because such increase in wickedness and terribleness are the only means to bring the status of humanity to a higher state; a means to surpass himself; to move away from the lesser creature that he was; as consistent with the purpose of the Superman. In Thus Spake Zarathustra, Nietzsche, through his protagonist said: â€Å"Man is something that is to be surpassed. What have you done to surpass man? All beings hitherto have created something beyond themselves: and you want to be the ebb of that great tide, and would rather go back to the beast than surpass man? What is the ape to man? A laughing-stock, a thing of shame. And just the same shall man be to the Superman: a laughing-stock, a thing of shame (Nietzsche, 1999: 3). † If it is true that Hitler was influenced by Nietzsche’s writings, Hitler read Nietzsche’s â€Å"terribleness† to mean the need for brutality and destruction in order to refine humanity and remove all traces of imperfection to achieve a race of Superhumans. Humanity can only be cleansed of imperfection if such lesser human beings are prevented from interbreeding, propagating their genes to allow further continuance of the slave line, To Hitler, this is the only means to which a Superman, that is, referring to himself, can rule the world. In Mein Kampf, he says: â€Å"†¦when the highest type of man has previously conquered and subjected the world to an extent that makes him the sole ruler of the earth (Hitler, 1971: 288). † Extermination, then, becomes an essential element for the realization of Hitler’s utopia. He, in his own hands sought the application of Darwin’s evolution by ruthlessly eliminating his â€Å"weaker† and â€Å"lower† human beings. According to him: â€Å"Those who want to live, let them fight, and those who do not want to fight in this world of eternal struggle do not deserve to live (Hitler, 1971: 289). † That said, for Hitler, mass killings and the use of violence can be justified if only for the purpose of saving mankind from the slaves who are the sole source of its degeneration, that is, those who lack the motivation for self-preservation and those who impose guilt on the nobles by perpetually seeking others’ help. His resolve was characterized by alienating any manifestation of slavery by exterminating them. It cannot be gainsaid that Hitler used Nietzsche’s philosophy to justify his own. What Hitler had done however, cannot in any way be imputed to Nietzsche. Reading all of Nietzsche’s works as a whole, one cannot help but doubt whether Nietzsche truly shared whatever anti-Semitic sentiments that prevailed during their time. At most, the resultant justification that Hitler was able to get hold of from Nietzsche was merely a product of his megalomaniacal search for an intelligent bearing to support his propaganda and to further cultivate his delusions of grandeur and personal hatred against specific races, accepting what phrases that apply to his vision and rejecting those that did not. Works Cited Hitler, A. (1924). Mein Kampf (James Murphy, Trans. ): NL: Fredonia Books. (Original work published 1927-1927). Nietzsche, F. (1999). Thus Spoke Zarathustra (Thomas Common, Trans. ): New York: Dover Publications. (Original Work published 1883-1885).