I remember when my son was still in elementary school, he asked me one day why I wasn’t more like his teacher. When asked what he meant, he said his teacher would praise him and give him stars and stickers for good work, while “you never see anything good that that I do,” he protested to me. I felt terrible because he was mostly right. But I know I am not alone. Asian parents generally don’t like to praise their own kids in front of other friends, but American born parents frequently do.