HONG KONG (AFP) – Two Hong Kong 10-year-olds reared on a punishing schedule of study and swimming have sailed through British high school exams, fuelling debate over the "Tiger Mother" approach to parenting.
Twins Estephe and Perrine Corlin scored straight "As" in the maths papers of the International General Certificate of Secondary Education exams, which are normally taken by 16-year-olds.
The boy and girl's Malaysian-born mother Rosalind Corlin said their achievement was down to a gruelling schedule tailor-made for success -- echoing Amy Chua, the Chinese-American author of "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother".
The Yale University law professor has sparked worldwide debate with her book extolling the benefits of no-nonsense parenting over the more relaxed style of child-rearing common in the West.
Corlin insists that her twins enjoy their daily grind, which starts at 5:30 am with 90 minutes of swim practice.
"They love it. They want to do it, they enjoy being with other friends at the extra-curricular activities," she told AFP in a telephone interview.
Their businessman father, who is French, is less enthusiastic, lamenting the lack of leisure time he has with his busy offspring, Corlin said.
But Corlin, once a member of the Malaysian national swim team who left a job in the finance industry to focus on her family, said the twins are "very competitive themselves and they like to excel".
Corlin's approach differs in one major respect to Chua's, who sees no point to sport. Apart from their swimming, Estephe and Perrine also hold brown belts in judo, and are proficient in sailing and chess.
After their early-morning visit to the pool, "they then have time to squeeze in half an hour of maths or physics revision before heading to school at 8:30 am", Corlin said.
"The kids would resume swim practice after school at 5:00 pm," she said. "We study (schoolwork) for 45 minutes during weekdays and longer during weekends."
In her book, Chua recounts an ultra-strict regime of piano lessons and homework for her daughters, arguing that for Asian immigrant families in the United States, pushing children hard is the key to getting ahead.
Links to an excerpt published this month in the Wall Street Journal have been shared countless times on Facebook and Twitter, triggering a debate over cultural values at a time of concern in the West about falling behind China.
"The solution to substandard performance is always to excoriate, punish and shame the child," Chua wrote.
"All decent parents want to do what's best for their children. The Chinese just have a totally different idea of how to do that."
Chua said she had called one of her children "garbage", and made one of her daughters stand out in the cold for falling short on piano practice, comments that have attracted emailed death threats.
Corlin has a more balanced approach to work and play for her own children, but agrees that failure is not an option.
After their success in the maths papers, whose results came out this week, Estephe and Perrine plan to take higher-level physics and chemistry exams.
"What she does seems extreme," Corlin said of Chua, in a separate interview with the South China Morning Post, "but she's right in the sense that self-discipline is important".
"Kids themselves don't really want to do it. Letting them do what they want now is not really a good approach."
by Joyce Woo Joyce Woo
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