Asian Parents Frenzy

cobrat
Tue, 21 Mar 2017 18:58:07 +0000

BTW - and if you think American parents have less expectation of their kids and put less pressure on their kids, hmmm, no. They are just more PC about it. They say they do not care as long as their kids are happy, there is world peace, and all colleges are the same, it doesn’t matter what college you go to it is what you of it, and they are just blowing happy sunshine up you know what. But they still feel the same as Asian parents and their kids still feel the same pressure.

There are Non-Asian Americans who are also intense Tiger parents that I personally knew of while growing up in a former working class NYC neighborhood.

One elementary school classmate from a Latino family(Puerto Rican) had a father who had a 20 year career as a US Marine from the time he enlisted in the late '40s at 17 with a 10th grade level education* till he retired sometime in the early-mid '70s as a Korea/Vietnam Vet and a stint as a Marine drill instructor.

He was obsessed from early elementary school in preparing his son to not only follow in his footsteps as a Marine, but to attend Annapolis so he could be a USNA graduate Marine Officer.

This extended to expecting his third grade son to keeping his room organized to the level expected by US Federal Service Academy cadets as some HS classmates and one older cousin recounted from the Service Academies and if he was found to have misbehaved in school as happened a few times, punish him like a recalcitrant Marine boot camp recruit by having him do push ups and other “PT them to death” type exercises in a public park in clear view of other classmates/public.

To say this father was disappointed when he found his son was rejected by all the Service academies** despite the fact he earned a full Army ROTC scholarship to a local private U which made attending it completely free would be a great understatement. Said father was actually angry at his son’s “inexcusable performance” and it was a major factor in the son breaking off all contact with the father not too long after he graduated and received his commission as an Army infantry officer.

Had to drop out to work to support family and younger siblings.

** Said father refused to acknowledge the fact Federal Service Academy admissions had become as competitive as the Ivy/elite colleges when his son and I were applying to colleges during the mid-'90s.