American parents forget that in this country their children are able to experiment freely with ideas; without this they will not really be able to think or to believe in themselves.
In my high school years, back in Indonesia, we were models of dedication and obedience; we sat to listen, to answer only when asked, and to give the only correct answer. Even when studying word forms, there were no alternatives. In similes, pretty lips were always as red as cherries, and beautiful eyebrows were always like a parade of black clouds, Like children in many other countries in the world, I simply did not have a chance to choose, to make decisions. My son, on the contrary, told me that he got a good laugh—and an A—from his teacher for creating his own simile "the man was as nervous as Richard Pryor at a Ku Klux Klan convention."