242. Tiger Mother, Eagle Father or Turkey Grand Grand... Father

How do we educate younger generation? Currently, there are at least three ways for us to follow, including the ways of The Tiger Mother, The Eagle Father and The Turkey Grand Grand… Father. First, we have to know who they are before we look into their ways to educate our children. By now, everyone should know who the Tiger Mother is.

I heard the news that Tiger Mother's daughter was admitted by Yale University this summer. It seems that Tiger Mother's educational goal was to push her children to the Ivy League Schools. But how about the Eagle Father? The Eagle Father is the husband of my friend. He is European American and works at a University in New York City. His educational philosophy is to give his children a generous environment and let them to decide what school they want to attend. The Eagle Father never pushes his children to study harder than others.

You might feel surprised to find that who The Turkey Grand Grand... Father is. He is none others but Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), one of the great founding fathers of this country. Franklin paid much attention to educate the youth. He donated his time and energy on bringing up useful young people for the world. As a senior, he wrote his autobiography in order to set an example for coming generations. Franklin’s main philosophy on education was that the educational system must produce useful people.

I agree with Franklin’s principle that our purpose of education must focus on usefulness. You might wonder why I call Benjamin Franklin the "Turkey Grand Grand...Father." This is because that Franklin liked Turkey very much. For him, the turkey was a bird with good morality. In his letter to his daughter Sally (Mrs. Sarah Bache), which he wrote in France on January 26, 1784, Franklin pointed out that turkey is "a Bird of Courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his Farm Yard with a red Coat on".