It’s easy to focus on play and creativity when your kids are young. I was sure I wasn’t going to be a stereotypical tiger parent, signing my kids up for every academic opportunity and expecting 110% effort at all times. But now that my older child is heading to middle school, the stakes feel a … Continue reading Rethinking Tiger Parenting
“When They See Us”: An American Tragedy
I hardly know what to say about this series. And yet, I feel compelled to write about it. It is so painful to watch and then to imagine how incalculably more painful, harrowing, soul-crushing it must have been for the five boys and their families to live through. There are not enough words. It’s a … Continue reading “When They See Us”: An American Tragedy
Qatar Travelogue
These were originally written as a series of Facebook posts when I traveled to Doha, Qatar with the Dean of my school to discuss a joint venture with a satellite campus there. Lightly edited for the blog. September 6-11, 2018 DepartureArrival Entry #1: Holy shit, I’m in Qatar! Never expected to have an opportunity to … Continue reading Qatar Travelogue
Speaking of things that are died
This is a piece I wrote almost 7 years ago. I sent it out to a couple of publications focused on motherhood, got a little interest from one, but I didn't persist when they passed on it. Father's Day 2019 seems an appropriate time to post here. My four-year-old son S was eating a peanut … Continue reading Speaking of things that are died
Welcome to Contrary Frog
Image credit: “Another "Neighbor” by Usonian is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 There's a Korean folktale about a young frog who never listens to his mother, always doing the opposite of what he's told. Then his mother falls ill and before she dies, knowing her son, she asks him to bury her by the river … Continue reading Welcome to Contrary Frog
Why a blog? Why now?
Back in 2004, when blogs were everywhere, some friends and I started a group blog that would take the conversations we were having about politics, culture, and academic life into a more public realm, in a medium that was faster than academic publishing, slower than the news. Instead of sound bites and "hot takes" (before … Continue reading Why a blog? Why now?
Contrary Frog 