This is a strange, rambling article. And the above statement is just wrong. And the author doesn't know anything about Amy Chua's philosophy. If anything, Chua would say BECAUSE the schools are failing, you must take responsibility for making sure your children are educated and motivated to learn.
By threatening to sell her daughters doll house if she didn’t get a song on the piano done right or threatening to chuck out the sony playstation because someone got a B or an a- instead of an a+. Yeah that’ll work.
As a kid, my parents wanted A's. And, if I got A's, they wanted them to stay A's.
WBill Jr has the same expectation from me. I don't see a thing wrong with it.
Only thing that I've added, is that if "A's" aren't happening, then I start asking what needs to change to make them happen. (Mom and Dad made me figure it out on my own....) I'm willing to help - for instance, during a tough time in school a couple of years ago, he asked that I get him there a little earlier in the morning, that extra 10-15 minutes to get his stuff together would be a huge help.
Done, and problems resolved.