Seeing the Big from the Small | What History Tells Us About Tiger Moms and Liberal Education

Some behaviors really can be seen from childhood—at three years old you can tell how someone will turn out. If a person looks for the thread of growth in their own history, they will generally find that what’s set is set, whether or not you become a high official or earn a fortune.

As for the author personally, since childhood he has liked finding loopholes and disliked labels like nicknames and formulaic definitions (which is why algebra scores were often terrible, while geometry was full marks all the way), disliked saying profanity, disliked repeating things (and would even specifically notice that the content someone chatted with him about had actually been said years ago), and thus developed a free attitude.

The so-called freedom does not refer to politically correct freedom, but freedom of the soul and freedom of thought. Hence he quite detests those self-deceivers who censor even thought yet hold high the banner of democracy and freedom[1].

However, if you want your child to gain emperor-like power, teaching emperor studies from childhood in the tiger mom style is a necessity. But even so, the child’s own personality will still greatly influence future achievements.

Just like many future doctors or lawyers who were held to high expectations, yet ultimately abandoned all obligations and responsibilities to go farm and teach in the countryside or travel far away to paint and design, all the while saying they were searching for themselves.

Setting aside how much inheritance their backgrounds might bring later, they are still a relatively courageous group.

Conversely, more people complain about their working lives yet lack the courage to leave their comfort zone, and in the end just make a mess of their own lives—and worse, make a mess of others’ lives too.

The author once saw a specialist doctor at a certain hospital post on his little Facebook corner that he didn’t know whether to go into cardiology or the easier dermatology, seemingly troubled by it.

But when these two specialties can be mentioned in the same breath in a doctor’s mind and are hard to choose between, how can one not doubt whether you have enough professional ability to keep delving deep into the endless mysteries of the human body—and in the end you’ll just receive clients in the clinic without any passion.

Of course, if your job can earn a lot of money, then gradually abandoning childhood dreams during the process of growing up is fine—after all, money makes many things easier. Of course, this notion also traps many people in a lifetime prison of never letting themselves fly free.

So you’ll see many doctors suddenly take up painting and photography in old age, but by then, aside from holding exhibitions under the name of “doctor” for a bit of consolation, they have mostly wasted their youth—the most creative time under a pure heart—and it’s hard to achieve anything in terms of artistic level itself.

Don’t misunderstand me as advocating that parents shouldn’t discipline their children and should let them fly freely—that’s just irresponsible nonsense.

A friend, when his child was in elementary school, often bragged that he gave his child very generous freedom, not wanting the child to repeat the pain of his own oppressed upbringing. But once the child reached middle school and he found the child going further and further astray, he now occasionally cries that he can’t control the child.

Freedom is not laissez-faire. Children need something to serve as a guiding beacon during their growth, and parents bear the heaviest responsibility.

Education itself is not a duty or obligation of freedom—the two simply cannot be considered together.

What matters most is whether parents themselves can fully enjoy the wonder of free thinking and convey it to their children. After all, children grow up watching their parents’ backs; DNA genes can determine appearance and body, but thinking can only take shape through life and education.

Once you fail to educate your own child in the beauty of free thinking, just wait for others to fill your role. As for whether that’s a prejudiced teacher or a self-interested little thug, it’s no longer something you can control.

As for whether self-directed learning in liberal education is better? In reality, the answer is still unknown.

A certain newly appointed official in domestic politics is an unparalleled genius who grew up under self-proclaimed liberal education. Do you think his parents’ parenting style was great? At least before another son in their family broke out in a pedophilia scandal, this couple was quite proud of themselves.

Also, in film and television works, self-taught learners are often portrayed as outstanding.

But people often overlook a fact: no matter how one becomes self-taught, those people ultimately still have to return to the university system to deeply study professional knowledge.

Hmm, what about the promised free learning and self-directed growth?

In reality, most self-taught learners merely, during the basic learning stage, deny and reject the common-sense education beyond theoretical knowledge that can be gained in school life. They spend what they consider trivial time on a more efficient study schedule.

So you might think those people are excellent self-taught learners, but in fact they are just a product of optimization. And it’s an effect that can only be sustained by massive, concentrated resources.

At bottom, this is really just emperor studies under the fine name of liberal education.

References

1. Legislator Amends National Security Act to Control the Internet; Lawyer Criticizes Legislators for Not Reading
2. “Digital Intermediary Service Act” Yuanming Joke Collection