The whole Asian-good-test-scores thing reminded me of an interesting article on Asian parenting from the WSJ a few weeks ago.  Just kind of as a background, I came to the US when I was 6 (so English was not my first language) and I ended up going to an Ivy League college.  I guess that's one of the reasons why I have such a great view of the U.S.  I'm a straight-shooter, so if it sucked, I would say something.  Yeah, there are plenty of ways the US sucks, but there aren't a lot of countries where someone can come with a few hundred dollars in their pocket not speaking a lick of the language and be successful.  I guess that's why it's called the "American Dream" and not "the French Dream" or the "Aussie Dream."

Getting back to the article, I'm probably in between what the author of the article describes as being "Western" and "Eastern."  To be honest, I'm not sure what's best.  I grew up with more the "Eastern" background.  I remember one time, my dad being really pissed off at my younger brother for getting like an A- (or maybe it was a B+), and he yelled at him for not trying hard enough, and that all he'll amount to is being a janitor (which is a perfectly fine occupation for all the janitors out there).  And as well all know, the job market is flooded with those "'A minus' janitors."  So he made him clean the toilets in the house.  That's old school.

Me?  I want my kids to be successful, but I want my kids to enjoy life (short term and long term).  Not sure if this still happens, but when I was younger, there was always at least one Asian suicide a year you heard about because their parents put too much pressure on them.  Who knows how many countless kids are made miserable by crazy parents?  One time, Mrs. Fly asked me if it was important for G and D to also go to an Ivy League school.  My response was "the Ivy League is overrated.  Happiness is underrated."

Continued in later post.