Does practice really make perfect?

Amy Chua's Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, her book on extreme parenting that drives children to succeed at all costs, has sparked a flurry of controversial responses, a recent article in The Atlantic by Sandra Tsing Loh being one of them. Loh does not defend the ever-demanding Tiger Mother who believes in learning by rote, rigorous academic drills, and what can be mildly deemed a "forceful" approach to parenting. Instead, she asks us to feel compassion for parents who use this approach. For, while their children do "succeed" more often than not, what's left at the end of the day is often nothing more than the satisfaction of having statistical excellence. These kids and parents rack up the numbers, but does practice, practice, practice (beyond all reasonable limits) inspire these students to continue learning? Does the whole process become an irrational game wherein perfection is the only acceptable goal?

Hard work, Loh acknowledges, is valuable, no doubt about it. But what do we have after we've reached perfection (another A+, a pile of Ivy League acceptance letters, a perfect report card)...is anything left? It depends on what drove the student to make sacrifices in the first place. Often, an overbearing parental presence will get us to a certain destination, but not much further. Students accepted by Harvard and Princeton, those who major in astrophysics and international economics, graduates who put in the hours at investment banking firms - have they gotten what they wanted? Perfection is not genius, and Beethoven didn't have a Tiger parent drilling him every waking hour of his childhood - though he certainly had the family connections. The bottom line is, practice and excellence certainly produce benefits. As for art, curiosity, innovation - these often get put on the back burner in today's rigorous race to be perfect.