"Tiger" Parenting.

Again, you're thinking in an asian mindset. Therein lies the problem. It doesn't MATTER what your parents want. If you want to be a Pianist, should you not be allowed to pursue that? What is the point of your life if not to chase your dream to the bitter end? A parent's job would be to inform you that Scientists are in higher demand and that it will be easier to get a job that way, however they should also support you fully in the pursuit of your dream.

You may be content to go into a mediocre lifestyle with a job you don't want, going to bed and waking up every morning worrying about job security. Checking the bills and worrying over whether they can be paid. Going to a job you don't want and resent it the entire time. Go home and kick off your shoes to try to enjoy yourself, well guess what, no time for that. You've got kids to feed so you begin cooking. Then you go do some other things that need doing but I guarantee they're not at the top of your list of a good time. So you see, you struggle all through school, only to struggle through life. I realize that this has become almost necessary in the world we live in, but that is the true problem.

If you had worked hard and become an accomplished Pianist, you may have the same exact day, except for one part. You like your job, perhaps even love it. It gives you a sense of fulfillment and accomplishment. Maybe you don't have as much for your child's super expensive university fund. But you'll be a happier person, and a better person for it. Hell, you'll even be a better parent. Let the people who have a true interest in science explore the sciences. Life is now the pursuit of money, that's pathetic. It should be the pursuit of happiness. Money is not happiness. Follow your dreams.

Erm, I guess my post was kinda vague. I meant to say, assume that a child has no interest in either science or piano. His family tiger parents him into becoming a pianist, believing it to be 'right'. But then, they aren't exactly correct, are they? Logically, given the previous scientist example, wouldn't math be a better decision to make their children go for? In terms of career prospects, and the creative aspect of the pianist career that they're denying him by tiger parenting his music. I guess the point I was trying to make was that despite frequent assertions by such parents that they are making correct decisions, they don't always end up pushing their children in the right direction.

Meh, I gotta be clearer...

I have to say, though, that the society also has a fairly huge hand in culling the dream job opportunity. But then, it wouldn't fit in this thread 'cause it's about tiger parenting, not tiger societal norms.

This statistic is 100% made up.

You retain like everything from those years for the sheer reason of their being the basis for all scholastic knowledge thereafter. I'm not going to turn 25 and forget how to multiply, that's retarded.

Maybe that 80% includes all the useless/less applicable formulae you had to remember in math class, or the multitudes of random dates (birth, death, war, etc), names and figures in history? Maybe the exact locations of various types of specialized processes in Geography? I think the statistic counts the numerous details, not the vital concepts.