Instead of fearing the excesses of tiger parenting culture and settling for the current state of American education, we should adopt its best features. In other words: Americanize tiger parenting.
Hide your sitcoms and sleepovers because Vivek Ramaswamy is coming after them. Or that’s what many would have you believe after the pharmaceutical entrepreneur and Trump administration appointee called out American mediocrity in education amid a heated debate on immigration.
“A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers," Ramaswamy posted on X. "A culture that venerates Cory from ‘Boy Meets World,’ or Zach & Slater over Screech in ‘Saved by the Bell,’ or ‘Stefan’ over Steve Urkel in ‘Family Matters,’ will not produce the best engineers. … More math tutoring, fewer sleepovers. More weekend science competitions, fewer Saturday morning cartoons. More books, less TV. More creating, less ‘chillin.’ More extracurriculars, less ‘hanging out at the mall.’ ”
What many Americans heard was no more sports, no more sleepovers, no more fun. They saw Ramaswamy trying to turn Americans into a nation of “tiger moms” – overbearing (often Asian) parents who force their children to spend endless hours on academics.
Continue reading the entire piece here at USA Today (paywall)
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Neetu Arnold is a Paulson Policy Analyst at the Manhattan Institute.
Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images