Karen Heller: "Tiger Mother" sets off a reaction against the dark side of America's "achievement culture."

Did you forget to raise exceptional kids?

Neglect to teach them Mandarin? Require a mere hour of music practice daily? Let them watch television? Permit play dates? Condone B's?

I ask because Yale Law professor Amy Chua did not. Both daughters collect straight A's, and one played Carnegie Hall at age 14.

For her best-selling parenting treatise Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, Chua has received death threats and been eviscerated in the blogosphere. A New York Times column ran under the headline "Amy Chua is a wimp."

Her book, more mea culpa than manifesto, is not nearly as fierce as advertised. In parts, it's quite affecting. Chua admits her transgressions as she gradually abandons her belief in the superiority of Chinese parenting. The result is happier girls who remain, by any measure, superachievers.

Frankly, I'm more curious about the blistering reaction than Chua's methods.

Why are people enraged about how one woman chooses to raise her children? Is it because her girls' success arouses feelings of inadequacy in a competitive environment where every child is deemed a winner?

Chua's approach is the polar opposite of the documentary Race to Nowhere: The Dark Side of America's Achievement Culture, which has had 1,500 screenings followed by audience discussion.

The movie, by Vicki Abeles, was motivated by watching two of her children buckle from the "pressure-cooker culture" of academic, athletic, and extracurricular commitments.

"We live in a very competitive culture," she says. "The thinking is 'If you don't do this, you're going to miss out.' I want my children to be present in school, but I don't want it to be all about achievement. They leave us all too soon. I no longer ask about homework, tests, and grades. I ask, 'What are you excited about?' I don't let homework take over their evenings. I protect their sleep at all costs."

The documentary advocates less pressure in children's lives, less teaching to the test, fewer prescribed activities, and more time for play, for being a child.

Most screenings have been held in the very middle- and upper-middle-class communities where academic pressure and "college resumé-building" remain prevalent. These students tend to be children of high achievers and put tremendous pressure on themselves.