America has been lagging behind East Asian countries in the global rankings of student academic performance. In order to make up for this, some have suggested that American parents need to emulate the parenting style of the tiger mother originating from East Asia. This talk reveals that tiger mothering is a distorted version of Confucianist motherhood in premodern Confucian East Asia. I argue that it is the idea of the Confucianist mother, not the tiger mother, that has worthy lessons for rejuvenating American education. The lesson that we must draw from the Confucianist mother is that American parents must emulate the moral parent who places moral education of children as the most important educational goal. Ranjoo S. Herr is Professor of Philosophy at Bentley University, MA, U.S.A. Her areas of research are comparative philosophy, feminist philosophy, and political philosophy. Her TED presentation is based on her 2016 article, “Confucian Mothering: The Origin of Tiger Mothering.” This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx