Sophia Chua-Rubenfeld, the daughter of Amy Chua, - author of "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother" - has been a musician for some time. In accordance with the house rule - that daughters were not allowed to "not play the piano or violin" - Sophia chose piano. Practice? Every after-school afternoon and in summer camps. Repetition, competition. By age 14, Chua-Rubenfeld had performed at Carnegie Hall. Surely, Sophia could play Chopin like characters in movies, channel Beethoven a la car commercial, stiletto-pump Vivaldi in a local Nordstrom. Well, great. How about jazz?
New York Times columnist David Brooks was first to recognize the broader implications of the "Tiger Mother" phenomenon. "[Amy] Chua plays into America's fear of national decline," Brooks wrote in a column last week. "Here's a Chinese parent working really hard (and, by the way, there are a billion more of her)," Brooks added. "Her kids are going to crush ours." And who are "ours"?
The tide of nativism comes awash, pulling us again, right on schedule. Yet the concept of "American," - or of culture and identity itself - is becoming less bound by geography and ethnicity. Especially with the influence of the Internet, where distances are understood solely by time zone, website suffix and keyboard arrangement.
Although many point out that Mrs. Chua has spread the "Chinese parent" stereotype, this point was irrelevant to begin with. The parental strategy, regardless of nationality, is the issue. As Brooks noted, "She is not really rebelling against American-style parenting; she is the logical extension of the prevailing elite practices." These hypercompetitive practices do not merely occur at the parental level but are simply indicative of the times.
This competitive mentality is so innate to us that it needs neither reference nor explanation. The best metaphor of competition lies within the student who studies when necessary - with whatever ambitions indulged by an apathy the extent of which was previously unimaginable. "Of course, the education race doesn't end with a high school diploma," President Obama said during last night's State of the Union Address. "To compete, higher education must be within reach of every American."
Question: Why must higher education be within reach of every American? Answer: To compete. Correct. 1510. 32. $36,000.
When losing a contest - or repeating the same one - the natural impulse is to change the parameters of competition. In his Cavalier Daily column, George Wang provided a new perspective on success. So, too, can American success be measured by different criteria - not a rejection of economic competition, but a recognition that competition and capitalism are only some aspects of this country's greatness. A success in which freedoms and rights are more valuable than anything quantifiable - "As contentious and frustrating and messy as our democracy can sometimes be," rang the President's finest line. "I know there isn't a person here who would trade places with any other nation on earth."
Brooks' column returned this week with a comment about the future of competition. In "The Talent Magnet," he said, "In this century, economic competition between countries is less like the competition between armies or sports teams ... It's more like the competition between elite universities who vie for prestige in a networked search for knowledge." When the metaphor of competition is no longer between individual students but expanded to entire schools, what does it mean to compete? Who determines the criteria of success on an aggregated level? Other institutions have better rankings, bigger endowments, smaller populations. But I would like to think some of us attended this University because of the ideals it stands for - for the people who stood here.
But these are not solutions. For even if you have changed the parameters, extended in new horizons, sought new values, fought on your own terms, won the past, present and future, you will still fail. By entering today's never-ending battles of hypercompetition, you have already lost. The only real victory comes when you have accepted the reality of loss, or relinquished the fear of losing, which is ultimately the same thing.
Aaron Eisen's column appears Wednesdays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at a.eisen@cavalierdaily.com.
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