The Eagle Meets the Tiger:
Western and Eastern Parenting and their Impacts on Creativity
Kyung-Hee Kim, Ph.D.
The College of William & Mary
kkim@wm.edu
Chapter 1: Introduction
In 2011, Amy Chua, an American of Chinese descent and a professor of law at
Yale University, rattled many American parents with the publication of her book Battle
Hymn of the Tiger Mother. In it she blasted American parents for their softness with their
children and their low expectations. Drawing on her own experience in Chinese
parenting, she advocated unrelenting discipline for children and boasted of how she had
raised her own children, who were quite successful. Even though many Americans were
shocked by the book, many embraced its core message.
Chua gives much helpful advice, but she also gives much bad advice to Western
parents. If Western parents follow her advice, they will pay a price: the price of their
children’s creativity. This book falls neither into the camp of Chua supporters or her
detractors. Instead, the aim of this book is to explain, based upon my twenty years of
educational research into creativity, what is right and wrong about Chua’s Tiger Mother
parenting. This book is about how to help Eastern and Western parents and teachers
foster creativity in the twenty-first century.
Traditional American culture has influenced the development of American
creativity. American creativity was fostered both by its uniquely multi-cultural
environment and by its emphases on creativity in its educational system and parenting.
This fostered Americans’ diverse perspectives, which are critical to creative thinking. In
traditional American schooling teachers did not rely on rote memorization, but rather
encouraged students to think critically and creatively. American children were
encouraged to disagree, to discuss, and even to argue with their teachers as long as they
were polite. American children were happier than Tiger Mothers’ children because
American schools were places where children had fun.
However, America is facing a Creativity Crisis. After years of related research, I
found that creativity has been declining in America since 1990.
The Creativity Crisis scares Americans. In the 1980s Americans were afraid of
the Japanese. Now it is the Chinese. “The Chinese are coming” is the fear du jour. There
are a billion of them, and half of those are ferocious Tiger Mothers! So, America acted in
a panic and reacted with a decision that the education system was dysfunctional. America
started wanting schools to produce quantifiable results. The way to do this was to
legislate that certain information be taught and tested with standardized tests. This
matured into the No Child Left Behind Act that is so powerful today.
American parents are quick to follow parenting trends, usually driven by fear and
jealousy, and a desire to do what someone else did because it worked for them. Tiger
Mother parenting is not good for raising a creative child. The type of climate maintained
in a Tiger Mother’s den is not conducive to cultivating creative attitudes or creative
thinking.
A writer named Po Bronson reported my research results to Newsweek. As soon
as The Creativity Crisis in America came out, scores of reporters wanted to interview me
and still do. They all want to know: What caused the decline? How do we reverse the
trend?
For a while I tried to reply to all of them, but then I decided that I needed to write
a book. These are important questions, and they deserve thorough answers.
The Creativity Crisis has a number of causes, and the trend can be reversed by
applying the science and research of the field of creativity. Creativity is a skill set; it is
measurable, it can be improved, and the world will be a better place if creativity is
enhanced.
The first thing that can be done to develop creative potential is to understand what
creativity is and what it is not. If people don’t know what creativity is, it is hard for them
to use it or improve it. If there is a lack of understanding of what the problem is, then it is
impossible to generate good solutions. The influence of books such as Chua’s, I fear, will
only accelerate the trend toward declining creativity that is already well underway.
By understanding the creative process and creative thinking, the Creativity Crisis
can be reversed, and more children can be taught to soar. It all starts with a clear
understanding of what creativity is. As Figure 1 shows, CAT denotes the creative Climate
(C), creative Attitude (A), and creative Thinking (T), which need to come together for
successful creativity to happen.
Figure 1. The Creative CAT’s Cradle: creative Climate, creative Attitude, and
creative Thinking.
The creative Climate includes the family climate, the school climate, the social
climate, the national climate, and the cultural climate. This book emphasizes cultural
influences on the development of creative potential in Eastern culture and Western
culture. Confucianism is the cultural foundation of the East; Judeo-Christianity is the
cultural foundation of the West.
I experienced the impact of Confucianism firsthand. My parents farmed apples on
a mountain in Korea, one of the most Confucian countries in the world. In my home
village girls did not go to high school; most did not even go to middle school. The only
career choice was which one of the five sock manufacturers a girl would work at after she
graduated.
For as long as I can remember, my parents rented out rooms in our house to
boarders. Mr. Hong, the husband of one couple, often beat his wife. He dragged her
around the yard by her hair. Her knees bled because the ground scratched them. “Why?” I
asked. “Why is this okay? How come I can’t hit my brother, but Mr. Hong can beat his
wife?” I learned that this was part of the legacy of Confucianism.
About twenty years ago, I was forced to get an abortion by my mother-in-law
after a sonogram showed I was having another girl. Girls are not valued in Confucian
culture.
By the time I learned about the implications of Confucianism, and the ways it
assigns value to people irrespective of merit, I would already be far away from it, in the
U.S. with my children. I found my mentor, Dr. Torrance, who taught me that I possess
the creative attitudes of a sense of justice, self-expressiveness, sensitivity, empathy,
courage, confidence, hard work, intellectual independence, rebellion, and resilience.
Finally, I understood what made me so different in Korea. I was creative. As the reader
will see, creativity does not fit well under a Confucian cultural climate.
Parts of my own story about growing up under Confucianism will be intermingled
with stories of two American children growing up in Virginia in the mid-1970s who had
great creative potential. American culture influenced the development of these two
children’s creativity. My story and the stories of these two American men, Marcus and
Archie, will help illustrate what research has found to be true about creative
development.
I met Marcus and Archie twenty-five years after they graduated from high
school. Marcus had never finished college. He was miserable because he had just lost
another job and his mortgage was behind. Archie had wanted to be a novelist since he
was little. In college, however, because his roommate was a pre-med student, and
because his parents insisted that Archie become a doctor, he decided to go to medical
school. Archie became an emergency room doctor. Yet he was unhappy because he was
not being productive in ways that made him feel fulfilled. He was a doctor at work but
lived a destructive life outside of work. It was like he was living two separate lives.
Archie and Marcus were friends. They were both drug and party addicts. They
were creative underachievers. Underachieving is not determined by comparing people to
others; it is determined by comparing people’s accomplishments to their potential. Both
Marcus and Archie were capable of great creative achievements, but they never pursued
their goals. Whether because of drugs, laziness, lack of inspiration, or lack of structure,
these and other creative underachievers waste their great potential.
This book is dedicated to helping parents, East and West, to parent their children
and work with their schools to help children achieve their creative potential. Nobody
knows how many creative underachievers there are and what they would be capable of if
they applied themselves.
I live in Virginia now. A lot of America’s Founding Fathers came from Virginia. I
study the Founding Fathers because they are fine examples of everything it means to be
creative. They were evolutionary, courageous, democratic, and visionary in mind and
action. Their creation is one of the greatest the world has ever known: the land of the free
and the home of the brave. The Founding Fathers had what it took to bring about
revolutionary change that altered the world for the better. This is an extreme example of
what creativity can do, and how it comes about from the creative ideas of creators, who
rely upon and build upon the creative ideas of the creators who came before.
Children who want to be creative are like birds that are learning to fly. They are
meant to do it, but they have to learn how to use their wings. When a bird is learning to
fly, it is called a fledgling. A fledgling needs to be prepared for the moment it will leave
the nest, and it needs to figure out how to get back. A fledgling’s parents cannot provide
any direct assistance. They can build their nest in a place where a fledgling won’t
plummet to its death, or fall into the clutches of hunting predators while it struggles to
learn to fly. The parents have to be with the fledgling to sustain it, while they also teach it
to find its own sustenance. They also have to leave it alone sometimes, so it can learn and
practice its living skills on its own.
Children who do not develop their creative potential are like birds that never
learn how to fly. They are like flightless chickens. They know to hop in and out of the
coop, but they never think to fly away from the barnyard or to eat new foods or try new
things.
Tiger Mothers raise chickens, not eagles. Farmyard life suffices. The same
food, the same places, the same interactions, nothing too unexpected or unusual, and a
whole life is spent in a pen that keeps shrinking and growing less tolerant of others.
Fledgling creators learn to fly, expanding their horizons through hard work and practice,
trying new things to reach new heights and to travel to new places. The world has been
improved by eagles that have learned how to use their wings, not by chickens.
This book is about Creative Climate and consists of thirteen chapters: Chapter 1 is
an introduction to this book. Chapter 2 is an introduction to creativity, what it is and isn’t
and what is required for its successful development. Chapter 2 introduces the CAT’s
cradle of creativity: a creative Climate, creative Attitude, and creative Thinking (CAT)
and how a general creative climate is formed through four different climates of creativity,
as seen in Figure 2.
Figure 2. The Four Climates for Gardening Creativity
The Sun Climate
The Sun, of course, provides plants with sunbeams (light) and warmth. Likewise,
a Sun figure (a parent or a role model) provides fledglings with the light of inspiration.
Parents also provide encouragement through warm love.
Most of the most eminent and famous creators in history had some sort of
childhood experience or person in life (often a parent or a teacher) that motivated and
inspired them. This moment or person lit up energy and passion within them that shone
throughout their lives. Just as plants grow toward the Sun, fledglings aspire to follow the
light of their inspiration. They want to reach out to the world with it. In a healthy Sun
Climate, the fledgling becomes inspired, outreaching, passionate, and energetic. In a
climate of affirmation, guidance, and support, fledglings become confident and
optimistic, and they display the delightful childlike characteristics of curiosity,
playfulness, spontaneity, and humor. Tiger Mothering is notably lacking in the Sun
Climate and Tiger Mothered cubs do not display the creative attitudes a proper Sun
Climate germinates and brings forth. .
The Storm Climate
Most parents instinctively want to protect their children from all harm, and this is
important. However, children should not be over-protected, or their creativity will suffer.
They need a few storms in their lives in order to build them into strong plants. These
storms come in the form of challenges, setbacks, or consequences. Creativity requires a
lot of self-discipline and persistence, and fledglings need to develop these qualities
through experiencing a Storm Climate as well as a Sun Climate in their young lives.
Most eminent creators in history experienced and overcame adversities in
childhood. They had to develop strong wills and independent minds to overcome these
setbacks and struggles. There are many frustrations and failures in the creative process,
and the creator must be persevering and resilient.
Creators also must be self-disciplined and self-sufficient, and they learn this
through proper parental discipline in a healthy Storm Climate. Tiger Mother Chua is right
that many American children lack an ethic of hard work and self-discipline. However, as
we will see, Tiger Mothering involves rigid discipline that puts too much emphasis on the
children submitting and obeying, which stifles their creativity.
The Soil Climate
Soil provides plants with nutrients and firm ground to stand in. Just as a plants’
growth is enhanced by enriched nutrients, fledglings thrive through diverse resources
such as intellectual, social, or educational resources. Yet just as firm soil holds the plant
in place, family and cultural backgrounds help fledglings develop firm identity
development that is nevertheless open to other influences.
Tiger Mothers are focused on a rigid view that involves getting the right answers
(so as to excel on tests). Yet fledglings cannot develop creativity without being exposed
to diverse opinions, different fields of endeavor, unique personalities, and other religions,
cultures, ideas, and personalities. In a healthy Soil Climate, fledglings become openminded, tolerant, complex, resourceful, and knowledgeable.
The Time Climate
Eminent creators often discovered their interests and calling a very young age.
They were given time to do so—to explore. Just as plants need time to grow, fledglings
need time to grow too. They need adult patience, consistency, and the adults’ respect for
the child’s age-appropriate independence in order to discover and explore their interests,
strengths, and gifts.
Tiger Mothers do not allow time for their children to express or find their
interests, strengths, or their own identities. Instead, they hurry their children to achieve
and not to “waste” their time on creative pursuits. Tiger Mothers lack patience and do not
trust their children to spend time alone constructively or to think for themselves. They
think that they must schedule and supervise their children’s time tightly so that they can
compete with others.
Just as plants’ growth is enhanced by consistent care, fledglings thrive through
their trust in adults and adults’ trust in them. In a healthy Time Climate, the fledgling
becomes self-expressive, sensitive, empathetic, and reflective as he or she is given the
time and space to practice unfurling his or her wings.
People cannot control time, and time controls people. Fledglings need freedom
from others’ controls, stereotype, preconceptions, stereotypes, norms, and expectations.
In a healthy Time Climate, the fledgling becomes non-conforming, psychologically
unisexual, and unconventional, and learns to question the status quo.
While going into more detail about the creative climate, Chapter 2 also introduces
Marcus and Archie, our American close-up of creativity gone wrong and how it could
have been corrected.
Chapter 3 tells how to develop creativity in the Sun Climate with inspiration and
encouragement. The degree of Sun Climate provided to children defines parents as being
Controlling, Guiding, Permitting, or Neglecting (these parenting styles might also be
called Authoritarian, Authoritative, Permissive, and Neglectful). The examples of
Archie’s and Marcus’s and my own childhoods are considered, which will give parents
realistic examples of what the parenting styles look like in real time so they can identify
and modify their own parenting styles.
Chapter 4 is about developing creativity in the Storm Climate through challenges
and discipline. The various parenting styles are discussed within the Storm Climate and
how they help or hinder the development of independence, autonomy, and self-discipline
in children. A theme is that parents need to teach their children about the importance of
failure, how to bounce back from it, and how they also need to help children accept
feedback and criticism in service of the development of children’s creative potential.
Chapter 5 describes how the Soil Climate influences creativity by providing
nutrients (diverse experiences and resources) while allowing the firm roots of identity to
develop. Cultural and historical backgrounds of the Soil Climate are illustrated by using
the influence of my own family’s historical background. I am one of the descendants of
the 34th generation of the royal family of the strongest dynasty in the Korean history. Yet
because of Japanese domination and the Korean War, my ancestors lost all of their
fortune, which is part of what influenced my interest in creativity.
Chapter 6 discusses the pervasive influence of Confucianism on all aspects of
Asian people’s lives, focusing on its effects on parenting as exemplified by Tiger
Mothers. Confucian style education and Tiger Mothers’ parenting are to creativity is what
clippers are to birds’ wings. Tiger Mothers’ parenting and Confucian style education can
increase a fledgling’s intelligence and heighten standardized test scores, but they do so at
the cost of creativity. Differences between Tigers (parents of highly intelligent children)
and Eagles (parents of highly creative children) are noted. The common qualities of the
Eagles in the four Creative Climates are also discussed.
Chapter 7 continues to focus on Asian culture as an ingredient in the Soil Climate
and how it affects creative development. Cultural attitudes toward debate and discussion
are explained, comparing the Confucian method of the East to the Socratic method of the
West. Confucianism focuses on rote memorization without critical thinking, and thus
damages creative thinking. On the contrary, the Socratic method focuses on debate and
discussion, and thus encourages critical and creative thinking. Tiger Mothers’ parenting
and American parenting and their educational systems are analyzed with regard to each
of the four Creative Climates, with suggestions for how to improve the development of
fledglings’ creative potential.
Chaptering 8 analyzes significant modern educational trends in America, and the
ways these trends impact creativity. Traditional American parenting and attitudes
generally fostered creativity by providing each of the Creative Climates. Tiger Mother
parenting and Confucian culture inhibited creativity by focusing too hard on strict work
ethics and mastery of the official content of the curriculum and rote memorization.
Traditional American attitudes toward education that fostered student individuality and
student interest have changed since 1990, partly in response to concerns over high Asian
standardized test scores. Today much of the creative, joyful learning environments
characteristic of American schools before 1990 have been replaced by more focused
efforts at rote learning and teaching students to perform better on standardized tests at a
cost to creativity.
Chapter 9 examines the Creative Climates common among Nobel Prize winners.
The Noble Prize symbolizes the highest degree of creative achievement. The statistical
chances of winning a Nobel Prize are analyzed between citizens of the U.S., Korea,
China, Japan, Israel, and the Jewish people, who have the highest statistical winnings
when it comes to the Nobel Prize.
Chapter 10 describes the influence of Jewish culture as an ingredient in the Soil
Climate of eminent creators. Researchers have claimed that Jewish people’s high
intelligence explains their high probability of winning a Nobel Prize. However, East
Asian IQs are as high as Jewish people’s, yet Asian people are less likely to get a Nobel
Prize than non-Asian people, while Jewish people are 120 times more likely than others
to obtain this high honor. This is because Jewish culture, not intelligence, encourages the
four Creative Climates, and Creative Attitudes and Creative Thinking, whereas Asian
culture and Tiger Mothers do not.
Chapter 11 explains the role gender plays in the development of creative
potential. Creativity test results show women and men have equal creative potential, but
women have significantly lower creative achievements than men. Marie Curie, arguably
the most creative woman in the world so far and the winner of two Nobel Prizes was not
raised by a Tiger Mother nor did she become a Tiger Mother herself. Yet she and her
daughter together represent 50% of the female Nobel Prize laureates in chemistry, both of
them having claimed the Prize. Curie’s creative climates are discussed in terms of her
family history, her collaboration and non-conformity to gender roles, and her big vision
in addition to all the hurdles, obstacles, and personal losses she overcame.
Chapter 12 explains how the Time Climate affects creativity through patience,
consistency, trust, and freedom from constraints. The different parenting styles and their
approaches to the Time Climate are discussed.
Chapter 13 examines creativity in the Social Climate. This chapter discusses the
four Creative Climates in institutions and organizations and how they affect group’s
productivity and creativity.
Who Can Benefit from This Book?
Anyone who values creativity and wants to promote it can profit from this book,
including, of course, parents. I have tried to show that how creativity blossoms.
Creativity is a way of life, and with creativity, we will achieve a better world. I draw on
my own research, international data, and examples to provide a global perspective. I
focus on creative climates and how they vary among different cultures. I conclude that all
cultures need to foster a creative climate if the creative thinking that can transform our
world is to be nurtured in the young.
Creativity has been decreasing in America now for over twenty years. This affects
everyone in the world in addition to affecting individuals on a deep and personal basis,
individuals such as Marcus and Archie, whom the reader will get to know quite well.
Lives and creative contributions need to be saved and salvaged, and interest in creativity
has never been higher. Business magnates recognize that we live in an imagination
economy, and Harvard University has started an innovation laboratory to spark the
creativity that can project future life-transforming ideas and products into our world.
We need more Ben Franklins, Thomas Edisons, Marie Curies, and Steve Jobses,
We need to be nurturing the creativity of the next generation so that the future will be
better than the past.