Monthly Archives: February 2012

French Parenting and Apprenticeship

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NPR recently interviewed Pamela Druckerman, the author of Bringing up Bebe, on her observations of the uniqueness of French styles of parenting, and particularly what contributes to content, well-adjusted kids.

“We [Americans] assume … a little more that kids have inherent likes and dislikes, whereas the French view on food is the parent must educate their child and that appreciation for different food is something you cultivate over time,” Druckerman says.

One key to this cultivation of tastes appears to be exposure. Druckerman points out that in France, “there is no category of food called kids’ food. Kids and adults, from the start, eat the same thing.”

French parenting, like tiger parenting, helicopter parenting, and free-range parenting, is a mode of apprenticeship. It is initiating children into a way of seeing and experiencing the world. Children learn from their parents continually and implicitly what is normal and what is normative. In France, for example, it is normal for children to eat the same food as their parents, and to entertain themselves without parental supervision and interaction. French parents may or may not give thought to this. Regardless of the level of reflection, their children are apprenticed to them.

That’s why parenting matters, and why there are important lessons to learn from those who assume that their kids will develop a refined palate from trying all kinds of food from the start.

Jeremy Lin, Character, and Parenting

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Jeremy Lin has made me watch basketball again, but not just because he is an amazing athlete. He is a remarkable athlete with a compelling story. I was snagged from the time that I read the first NYTimes article about Lin sleeping on his brother’s couch on the Lower East Side. I’m a New Yorker, but it wasn’t he fact that Lin is now playing for the Knicks that held my attention. It was his character.

I’m not alone. Today, Forbes ran an article on 10 lessons (mostly character lessons) to learn from the latest basketball phenomenon. It highlighted the role that family played in forming Lin’s character – and resulting strong network of relationships that persist from long years of patient, persistent hard work.

Already much has been said about Lin as an Asian-American Christian. Michael Luo penned a piece for the NY Times that captured well why Linsanity spread nearly overnight among the well-educated Christian Asian-American networks (and particularly in NYC). What deserves note is the way that culture is transmitted through Asian-American families, and particularly Asian-American Christian families.

Children in these families are apprenticed in a way of being human that encourages learning, self-discipline, interdependence, patience, and persistence. As a result, there are a shocking number of second-generation immigrants at the most prestigious and rigorous schools in the United States. And now, there is also one who holds the attention of New Yorkers, basketball fans, and a folks who want a hero who has character and not just skills.