There has been a tremendous surge of
attention lately regarding the parenting practices of the famous
“Tiger Mom.” The Harvard Law professor wrote a book called,
Battle Hymn Of The Tiger Mother, in
which she recounted her experiences raising two daughters in
the traditional Chinese way while living in modern day America. The
book has raised much controversy regarding her practices, but what
caught my attention was that she pushed her daughters to learn a
musical instrument, the violin and piano respectably. This article
will discuss my thoughts on the Tiger Mom's parenting practices of
enforcing music discipline on her daughters.
In the book as well as in interviews,
the Tiger Mom forced her two daughters to practice their instruments
for 2 to 3 hours a day. She would listen to them practice and tell
them that each song must be perfect or they would not be permitted to
stop practicing until they could.
The first daughter really reached a
high level of musicianship in playing the piano. I heard her on a
video recording, and I was impressed with what I witnessed. She was
performing a piano solo at Carnegie Hall at the age of 14. Wow!
Clearly, the 3 hours a day of practice made that achievement
possible. The second daughter, on the other hand, studied the violin
for many years and has recently given it up with permission by her
mother, in order to pursue tennis.
Both of her daughters have high grades
in all their classes. Part of that has to do with high expectations
of their Tiger Mom, and partly I believe, because learning a musical
instrument improves cognition and it transfers to higher scores in
math, reading, and science.
I personally believe that 2 to 3 hours
of practice a day plus homework and studies is on the excessive side.
I believe 45 minutes to an hour of focused practice time is the most
effective, especially for beginners. Unless the child is immensely
enjoying the practice time, the results will not improve much after
the first hour, so long as it is focused practice.
Students who enjoy practicing need a
break after an hour. Even professional musicians need a break after
an hour of performing. And they are playing what they have already
learned. It's much more strenuous on the mind and even on the body to
practice an instrument for several hours at a time because of the
amount of concentration required. Everyone needs a break. The Tiger
Mom supposedly didn't even allow bathroom breaks during practice
time. Again, this is excessive and this method would certainly
backfire sooner or later. That's exactly what happened with her
second daughter.
If after practicing one hour a day
consistently did not show any improvement, certainly some change
would need to be made. If the student has a good teacher, that
teacher would be able to make a professional assessment as to whether
the student is improving and demonstrate how to achieve progress.
Unfortunately, sometimes it is poor teaching and not the student that
can hinder results or motivation. Sometimes a teacher change is
required. Sometimes it's the teacher's personality or method that is
not effective for a particular student's needs. I don't think this
was the case with the Tiger Mom. In my opinion, she was forcing her
kids to practice too much.
I understand that she had high
expectations and I applaud that. The West seems to be lacking in a
disciplined approach to parenting lately. But music inherently
teaches discipline. Music inherently causes the student to
self-analyze and to find solutions to improve. A good teacher can
help facilitate this even further. A mother looking over the shoulder
of her daughter while practicing causes too much pressure and
diminishes the joy that making music brings. Now I don't know if The
Tiger Mom actually looked over her daughters' shoulders while they
practiced, but that's how it appeared in the videos I saw from the
media. If that's the case, it would have been better to do a check
during the last 5 minutes of practice time to see if there's an
improvement.
A parent with no background in learning a musical
instrument should not take this approach too seriously, because that
would be like a lawyer performing heart surgery. It's not their job.
The teacher ultimately, assesses improvement and reports the results
back to the parent. The Tiger Mom did study the piano and violin
during her childhood, so she was somewhat qualified to assess her
daughters' progress. However, she is not a professional musician nor
a music education expert. So her opinion on progress would not be
considered as valuable as a professional teacher's would be.
The role of the parent in their child's
music education should be involved but not overbearing. The parent
should enforce daily practice for 45 minutes to an hour and make sure
to be informed by their child's progress from the teacher on a weekly
basis. If the teacher recommends more practice time or recommends
more concentration, the parent should enforce and facilitate this at
home. And if the child laments about how difficult it is to learn the
instrument, or expresses doubts of improving, the parent and teacher
both should encourage and support the child to believe in
himself/herself.
I applaud the Tiger Mom for being so
involved in her daughters' music education. I also applaud her for
understanding how important learning a musical instrument is for a
child's education and development. There is no doubt that learning an
instrument and learning how to read music have a profound effect on a
student's ability to master other academic subjects. It shows too,
because the Tiger Mom's children have proven to be superior in their
academics.
In the end, learning a musical
instrument teaches discipline, builds self-esteem, and improves
academic abilities. I thank the Tiger Mom and her story for bringing
the importance of music education to the forefront of the media, even
if it will be short-lived like all stories in the news. We the
people, parents and teachers, must ensure that the next generation
grows up to be intelligent, hardworking, and ultimately successful
individuals. Learning a musical instrument indeed teaches values that
will help them achieve these goals.