Sharon M. Draper Tears Of A Tiger

Ever since I was a young child, my parents always told me to try my best in school, they always told me this for the reason that they never had the opportunity to have a good job because they never finished school. This event is shaping me to care a lot regarding my education. In addition to that, another event that has shaped me to become the person I am today is that since my parents don’t have good paying jobs they have to work hard to take care of me and my siblings this event has caused me to become a hard working person and to seize all opportunities to live a good life because I don’t want to struggle like my parents.

Julie Lythcott-Haims explains to us all what a perfect child is; straight A student, fabulous test scores, gets homework done without parents asking them to do it… She has the right idea, the right mindset of a parent, every parent wants their child to succeed in life. The way that parents are parenting their children is messing them up. They don’t have a chance to become themselves, they are too focused on whether they did good on that test that they were stressing about for a week, they are too worried about getting the best grade to be able to get accepted into the biggest name colleges around. The parents become too consumed with hovering over their children making sure that they are doing flawlessly in school, the parents are directing their every single move they make. The children then began to think that their parents love comes from the good grades. Then they start making this checklist; Good grades, what they want to be when they grow up, get accepted into good colleges, great SAT scores, the right GPA, the jock of the sports team.

Education has always been an important foundation upon which my family encouraged the most. Not just the education pertaining to structured schooling, but the fundamentals in life that require you to interact in society and be a part of something bigger than yourself. They demonstrated how to commit to values such as responsibility, motivation, and consistency; and, how to be open-minded and passionate about the things you believe in. These things all required a sacrifice in various ways. They always stress how “sometimes you need to give up something to get ahead, or how sometimes sacrificing the familiar and what you expect from yourself to get the results that you are seeking in the long run.”

Bruni quotes the President of the National Center on Education, Marc Tucker, “ Our students have an inflated sense of their academic prowess.They don’t expect to spend much time studying, but they confidently expect good grades and marketable degrees”(par.25). From a young age we need to teach these children you succeed from hard work. Many parents have been exempting their children from test and are expecting them to learn? In order for kids to be able to learn what they need to, parents need to allow them to deal with the difficult times.

The book tears of a tiger is written by Sharon M. Draper and was published in 1994. The book tells the aftermath of 17 year old Andrew Jackson killing his best friend, Robert Washington, in a car crash after driving while impaired. The story heavily includes the turmoil that was caused from Rob’s death and the repercussions Andy faces after the accident.

All my life they explained to me the importance of an education. “You’ve got to get your education! It’s the only way to get ahead in the world” were the words told to Sotomayor by her mother. Words that I heard my entire life. My parents instilled in me that one day I could have something far beyond what they do. Intertwined in the pages of Sotomayor’s book is an account of her Mother’s efforts to keep her children educated. On one occasion her mother bought them educational textbooks to study and even paid to get her children lessons. Like her mother, my parents opened a world of possibility for me too. They worked extra shifts to get me music lessons, waited outside of school an extra hour when I had events, and payed for me to stay in sports. They went far and beyond to secure an education for me and my sisters. “The world branched out before me in a thousand new directions.” explains Sotomayor of the learning experiences her mother exposed her to. My parents are an essential link in what my career goals have become.

Educational Researcher by Gloria Ladson-Billings looked into the ratio between education and achievement and what the gap was between them and how to fix it. According to an interview with strict economist Professor Emeritus Robert Haveman of the University of Wisconsin’s Department of Economics he makes it clear by stating that “ In order to reduce the debt or gap in one being achievement you must then close the gap of the other being education” Ladson-Billings also goes on to recognize the parallel between not only your economic status when it comes to education but how well your parents did before you among many other things including your health along with your overall well being playing a factor into your education ( Ladson-Billings, Oct 2006, P 5). Additionally the first teachers of a student are their parents whom in the home are responsible for teaching their children the basic fundamentals they must adhere to within society in order to navigate throughout life.Thus giving them many opportunities to experience cultural and life development (Wilburn, Smith & Hill-Carter, 2013, P 242). This research ties into chapter three of our book where education is discussed and one such topic that Michael’s remarks upon would be annual family incomes and how depending on what is made shows what the students of the

In LaVaughn and Jolly’s life their families have to ability to build up or tear down their self confidence. In LaVaughn’s life her mother is great at building up her daughter's self esteem. When LaVaughn was younger she gave her parents a special dried flower picture. Her parent repeatedly told her how much they were proud of her. Knowing that she had made her parents proud boosted LaVaughn’s self esteem. This give LaVaughn the knowledge that she has the ability to be successful and make her family proud. Her mother also gave her the confidence she need to go against the odds and apply for college: “You go to college, you make me prouder than I been in my whole life” (Wolff 11). Her family encouraging her to follow her dreams promoted LaVaughn to get good grades and apply to college. Without the confidence her family gave her, LaVaughn never would have applied to college, and would be stuck in poverty for her whole life. On the other hand Jolly’s family only tears down her confidence. Because of her lack of self esteem Jolly gets pushed around by her boss. Jolly recalls, “‘ I said Stop it, he kept findin’ other directions to put himself all over me --’” (Wolff 57). Jolly’s family restrained the amount of confidence she was able to obtain. By kicking her out of the house and not providing support for Jilly and Jeremy, Jolly’s parents made her feel unloved and unimportant. This

She discusses the result of students not being taught how to take care of themselves. A report by a business-research group by the name of, The Conference Board, found that incoming graduates were lacking skills such as communication and decision making (Whelan 258). Employers want to hire strong, skilled leaders who can perform tasks in the correct manner. When a fresh college graduate is put into the job market, who knows if they will be able to make important company decisions, communicate effectively on the phone or in person. If an over involved parent has done these things for their son or daughter all their life, they are not going to know how to handle specific situations in which they will need a select set of skills.

Emotions are expressed immediately at the beginning of the writing to have his readers grasp his feelings of the situation. Goldstein compares Chua’s “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother” a “depiction of Chinese-style extreme parenting” (Goldstein 272). He then continues to maintain the reader’s attention by explaining Chua’s parenting skills by addressing the fact how the children cannot have play dates, or even watch television. Goldstein inspires his readers by giving individual’s personal experiences that reflect how they became successful.

His skilled laboring values influenced my father to work with his hands as a hobby, not as a vocation. My father seems to possess both the values of education and skilled work. On the other hand, my mother’s parents did not encourage higher education. My mother stated, “In the 1950’s and 60’s, women were not expected to attend college”. Although this was a strong value for society at that time, my mother encouraged education on her children. My mother’s talent in sewing and entrepreneurship from the family-owned hardware store influenced her to start a wedding apparel business.

John Korsmo, who wrote the article titled, “When Schooling Doesn’t Matter at Home”, tells his personal story of how his parents did not encourage his education. He says they actually often

Parent’s goals are to their children become successful learners so that children can do extremely well as an adult. Regardless if parents receive their high school diploma, parents still talk to their children about the importance of education (Thao, 2009).

With this in mind, I matured sooner than most of my peers in order to recognize the boundaries that I possessed with regards to how they confine me. While it immodest to claim humility, I must point out that I remain as the only child and therefore considered myself obligated to initiate a habit of dividing desires and requirements before presenting them so that hardship or guilt could be prevented for my parents. In addition, I have secured myself in receiving a college education after observing my parents struggle financially, not only for my own gain but also for the interest of my future family. Correspondingly, I have prioritized my education and work as utmost importance on this realization. By the same token, I have become more passionate in my athletics and extracurricular activities. All things considered, I chose to view these barriers as a wake-up call to determine what is important and to direct ambition in order to become successful. Ultimately, in the end, someone determines their success on the basis of how severely they want to achieve it, it cannot be predestined by the

Written eighty years ago, these same ideals of parental involvement in education ring true today and are the basis for educational goals in involving parents in their child’s education.