BEIJING—The school term may be coming to a close for summer, but education remains a hot topic.

At least that’s the way the China Times sees it.

The Taiwan-based newspaper invited Amy Chua, author of the controversial Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, to Beijing for several public speaking engagements earlier this week.

“She uses the Chinese way to educate her kids, and it’s very successful,” said Shao Jian Biao, the deputy editor in chief at China Times.  “But parents here in China have been trying the western way, because they thought it was better.  A lot of parents are confused.”

East or West?
Monday morning saw a small group of Chinese reporters—all of them female—turn up a hotel business center, eager to get Chua to expound on her views on raising children.

“I’m a mother, and I read her book very carefully,” said Shen Feng Li, Vice Director of Shanghai Morning Post.  “In China, we pay a lot of attention to education.”

Courtesy Citic Press

A Chinese translation of "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother."

At a corporate gathering in another hotel, the audience was again largely female.  “I have a little boy, and I read her book.  I agreed with it,” said a stylishly-dressed executive who did not want to give her name.

For any parent who might have been living under a rock this year, Chua’s book was excerpted in the Wall Street Journal in January with a headline that served as a wake-up call (of sorts) to Americans already anxious about a rising China: “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior.”

As it turned out, her book isn’t really about how the Chinese make better parents.  It’s a much more personal account of the challenges facing a mother wanting the very best for her children.

“I actually wrote this book in a moment of crisis, when my younger daughter, Lulu, turned 13, became a teenager, and rebelled against my very strict parenting,” Chua explained.

In fact, Chua took great pains to set the record straight.

“A lot of people in China…misunderstand.  They think [the book’s] like a parenting guide, and they don’t realize it’s supposed to be funny,” she said. 

The book, which was translated into Chinese and available almost immediately after its release in the U.S., was titled “Being a Mom in America” in China.

Among the greater misunderstandings amongst Chinese, Chua continued, is that “they don’t realize that at the end of the book I actually change and loosen up….  Many people in China only saw the opening about these strict rules, and they thought I was telling everyone, ‘Hey, everybody should do this.’”

Adrienne Mong

Amy Chua (right) and her daughters meet with Chinese reporters in Beijing.

Nonetheless, many people here disagreed with the parenting method Chua described in her book.

“An overseas Chinese wrote a book about China and teaching” so people were curious, said Dr. Henry Wang from the Center for China & Globalization, a think tank in Beijing.  But “people feel that even now the Chinese parents may not be that restrictive, or as harsh, or perhaps more demanding.”

“I think today’s parents in China have a different perspective and attitude than she does,” said Shen.  “I’m not sure her method would work here.”

Better to be balanced
Chua agreed.

“There needs to be balance,” she repeatedly told audiences.  “I think when the children are very young, the Chinese way is very good.  You have to guide them, teach them, to have respect, to have self-discipline [and be] hard-working.  But when they’re older, you have to be freer.”

In fact, the Yale Law School professor at times sounded evangelical about mixing East and West.

“I think China and America have opposite problems,” she said.  “The Chinese school system is already very strict….  But in America, it’s very free, everybody’s playing all the time.  So I felt I had to be stricter.”

Ultimately, audiences were curious about Chua’s daughters, 18-year old Sophia and 15-year old Lulu.  After all, their success—as students, as individuals, as daughters—would ultimately give credence to her choice of parenting style.

At the smaller gathering of reporters, Sophia (who calls herself a Tiger Cub and writes a light-hearted but thoughtful blog of her own) parried questions in fluent Mandarin with poise and confidence.

When a reporter asked the teenager whether she regretted “spending all that time practicing the piano,” Sophia rejected the notion.  “Not really….  Now I’m grown up.  I have a lot of time to do what I whatever I want, and I have the confidence to know that I can be good at it,” she said. 

Moreover, said the 18-year old, who will start college at Harvard in the autumn, “I think I will also be a Tiger Mother.  Maybe I will give my children more choice to choose their own activities.  When they’re very little, if they don’t like the activity I’ve picked for them, I won’t make them continue.  Whatever they want to pursue is fine.  As long as they’re very good and work very hard at it.”

Spoken like a true cub.

When kids are failing at school, who's to blame?

A number of states are pointing the finger at mom and dad.

Alaska and California recently passed laws allowing parents to be fined or brought up on charges if their children repeatedly miss school for no good reason. And Florida lawmakers are considering a bill that would have teachers give parents a report card.

Lisa Belkin writes for The New York Times:

Teachers are fed up with being blamed for the failures of American education, and legislators are starting to hear them. A spate of bills introduced in various states now takes aim squarely at the parents. If you think you can legislate teaching, the notion goes, why not try legislating parenting?

It is a complicated idea, taking on the controversial question of whether parents, teachers or children are most to blame when a child fails to learn.

But the thinking goes like this: If you look at schools that “work,” as measured by test scores and graduation rates, they all have involved (overinvolved?) parents, who are on top of their children’s homework, in contact with their children’s teachers, and invested in their children’s futures. So just require the same of parents in schools that don’t work, and the problem is solved (or, at least, dented), right?

Click here to read the full article. What do you think? Should parents be held legally accountable for what their children do -- or don't do -- in school? Or is education the school's job? Do you think you're involved enough -- or too much -- in your child's education? Vote in our poll, and tell us what you think in the comments.

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Sauvie Island Center

I recently learned of an educational program in Portland, Ore., that takes school kids, mostly from underserved districts, to a small but bustling organic vegetable farm, and teaches them the beauty of raising and eating (mostly eating) vegetables. The program is a runaway success, and could very well be a better grassroots way to stimulate positive dietary practices than any of the more sensational approaches, from Morgan Spurlock's "Super Size Me" documentary to Jamie Oliver's school-lunch makeover TV crusade.

School trips to farms aren't new. I grew up in Indiana, surrounded by cows, corn and combines. Where else were we going to go on a field trip? I remember a chicken farm. Not the sights or the sounds, though. The smell. Walking into the great hall where the hens laid their eggs, I was instantly caught in the embrace of a musky yet astringent cloud of malodor. Gripping at my nose with both hands, I still couldn't keep it out. Sweat poured from my face, tears ran from my eyes. My trip to the chicken farm didn't make me appreciate chickens more, and grossed me out on the eggs I had previously savored. It was something from which I had to recover.

But kids who visit the Sauvie Island Center don't leave reeling with the horrors of kale and tomato and turnip. No, having harvested it themselves, and used their haul to prepare a field lunch that could involve anything from salads to pesto dips to quesadillas, these kids are suddenly realizing that the vegetables on their dinner plates all their lives are actually quite tasty.

Sauvie Island Center

"The Jamie Oliver shows are a little extreme, but many of the kids who come out there have never been to a vegetable farm," Sauvie Island Center executive director Anna Goldrich told me. "Lots of kids don't think they like vegetables." 

When the field trip arrives, they go around a circle asking each child what their favorite vegetable is. "A lot of kids couldn't think of a vegetable that they liked." Goldrich said that this is not a socioeconomic thing either. She sees the same fear of vegetables — "lachanophobia," according to the Internet — in kids from the highest-income school districts.

But good things happen when you take these kids out of their environment, Goldrich said. By giving them a treasure hunt to locate a vegetable growing in the middle of a field, letting them pick it and then eat it, rather than getting it served to them, overcooked, on a plate by their parents, they generally respond with enthusiasm.

"They'll try almost anything if they can pick it out of the field and pop it in their mouth," said Goldrich. "They almost always try it, and they'll like most things, if not everything."

The Center is a nonprofit that works in collaboration with Portland's regional government, known as Metro, and the Sauvie Island Organics farm, located on 16 acres of a 120-acre park.

Back in 2005, the farm's owner teamed with James Beard Award-winning chef Cory Schreiber, founder of Portland's renowned Wildwood restaurant. Together they worked with public school teachers to create a curriculum, and began raising funds — including a grant from Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen — to achieve the vision of a quality educational experience for school kids.

Sauvie Island Center

In 2008, the farm hosted 300 kids throughout the year. By last year, the number had jumped to 1,100. Thanks to the outside funding, 60 percent of the trips to the farm bring kids from lower-income schools, where the cost of bus and staffing are covered.

The farm serves local restaurants and about 500 families who subscribe to get a box of assorted veggies every week. "Each week the farm will tell us where we can eat," said Goldrich. "Fall is awesome; everything is there … kale, turnips, carrots, tomatoes."

But because of the weird weather of late, there isn't always a bountiful harvest awaiting the school kids. Not long ago, the farm, lacking other options, directed the visitors to some brussels sprouts and collard greens that had lasted through the winter, instead of having been cut down. As luck would have it, the extra time in the field made the collards sweeter than usual. Instead of being grossed out by the bitterness, the kids couldn't get enough of them — raw. (Ordinarily they're only good when cooked for ages.)

Getting kids to eat their greens. That's a tough assignment for Mr. T, let alone a one-day school field trip program. But the results Goldrich sees give her reason for optimism. "We hope the experience will open their mind to eating more vegetables in the future," she said. "Maybe they'll be at the farmer's market, and say, 'Hey, that's kale, like we tried on the farm.' "

And no, the farm doesn't have any chickens. I checked.

Find out more about the Sauvie Island Center on its website (there's even a link for donations, if you want to help out). You can also follow it on Facebook.

Previously from Wilson Rothman:

• Man meets meat: Joining the butchering trend, knife-first
• Adventures in babyfooding: How I learned from failure
• A survival guide for royal wedding widowers

Wilson is the deputy tech and science editor for msnbc.com and TODAY.com. You can catch up with him on Twitter at @wjrothman.

These days we fret about so many things that can happen to our kids in school. Are huge class sizes preventing them from learning? Are they getting nutritious food in the cafeteria? Will they get bullied by other students?

Add to the list of worries (and perhaps even to the top): Will they be disciplined by corporal punishment?

A disturbing story in today's New York Times reveals that corporal punishment "is still alive in 20 states, according the Center of Effective Discipline, which tracks its use in schools around the country and encourages its end."

Vote: Should teachers be allowed to use corporal punishment?

If you're over age 30, you may recall the fear the principal's office elicited because of the paddling that could happen if you were sent there for misbehaving. (Apparently up until about 25 years ago, corporal punishment in public schools existed in all but a handful of states. Lawsuits and research that questioned its effectiveness caused states to ban the practice, the Times reported.)

A study found that more than 223,000 kids were subject to corporal punishment in the 2005-2006 school year, according to the federal Department of Education. Recent instances, as reported by the Times, include the case of a Wichita Falls, Tex., teen, who had to be hospitalized after blows from a paddle caused deep bruises. In another case in Mississippi, a boy was paddled so hard he passed out and broke his jaw.

The proponents of corporal punishment insist it's an appropriate way to keep kids in line. But don't we want to teach kids that violence doesn't solve problems? When kids are hit at home, it can be considered child abuse -- should it be any different in schools?

A few years ago a debate began on the issue of "No touch" policies being instituted in schools. The arguably inane policies are meant to discourage both teachers and students from "inappropriate" contact, from hugs to high-fives to horseplay.

It just makes you wonder: As a society, can't we find a happy medium between no physical contact and beating the heck out of our kids?

What do you think? Should schools be allowed to use corporal punishment to discipline kids?

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The latest trend for parents seeking to give their kids an edge in their development involves teaching sign language to toddlers with normal hearing. Proponents of this trend feel instructing preverbal children in American Sign Language can boost their I.Q. and bolster emotional stability, but not everyone’s convinced. 

What do you think? Would you prefer that your children used sign language instead of crying? Do you believe in the method? Watch the video and share your thoughts in the comments section.

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You may have seen the national ads on TV or seen the products in your local store. The program “Your Baby Can Read” promises parents an awful lot, but does it really deliver? TODAY investigated the program and sat down with a host of child development experts from the country’s top universities and organizations and the program’s creator and self-described “infant learning expert,” Dr. Robert Titzer to find out more. Is “Your Baby Can Read” an elaborate scam or is there some credible basis to it? For more on the story, click here.

Parents, have any of you purchased this program? What were your impressions? Watch the video and share your experiences in the comments section.

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(AP Photo/Disney Pixar)

Buzz Lightyear

A recent study of 2,000 British schoolchildren aged 6 to 12 revealed some rather sobering results. When posed a series of questions about historical figures and events, the children offered some surprising answers. Eleven percent, for example, thought Albert Einstein was the brother of Frankenstein and one in five of those children believed that the first person to walk on the moon was not, in fact, Neil Armstrong but rather fictional Disney character Buzz Lightyear.

Are you surprised by this survey’s findings? How accurately do you think your own children would answer these questions? Share your thoughts in the comment section.  

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