This notion that “American” math and sciences lag behind the world is one of the greatest lies ever told in my lifetime. And for the record, there is no “Russian” math or “Chinese” math. Mathematics is mathematics. Where the US approach differs is that they are not requiring high level of math on general public. However, if you are gifted and/or motivated, you have access to unparalleled resources.
American parents are sending their kids to 'Russian math' (2017)
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Re: American parents are sending their kids to 'Russian math' (2017)
#212Now in the USA, the accelerated math classes in high school are banned, because they are racist.
Re: American parents are sending their kids to 'Russian math' (2017)
#213Re: American parents are sending their kids to 'Russian math' (2017)
#214This notion that “American” math and sciences lag behind the world is one of the greatest lies ever told in my lifetime. And for the record, there is no “Russian” math or “Chinese” math. Mathematics is mathematics. Where the US approach differs is that they are not requiring high level of math on general public. However, if you are gifted and/or motivated, you have access to unparalleled resources.
Everyone understands that Russian math means Russian approach to math. And American approach does not result in general population knowing enough math. And this is why American math is lagging behind.
Re: American parents are sending their kids to 'Russian math' (2017)
#215Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't like the second question. Probably the kid is supposed to see the 'trick' :he drank a full cup of coffee since he didn't refill coffee and drank all. He added 1/2, 1/3 and 1/6 of a cup of milk and drank it all, so (3+2+1)/6=1. He drank the same amount of coffee and milk. I think it is ok as a brain teaser, but there will probably be one kid in the class to see it and all the other kids feel dumb or whatever.…
> 5a looks dodgy (probably just trying out numbers) You can find the 4 zeros of the left side by eyeball, and use that to construct the rest of the equation group you need. It's expected you've seen and solved this type of problem before taking the test. Not that many kids can come up with a working solution strategy on the fly.
When you have the 4 zeros how do you construct solutions?
Re: American parents are sending their kids to 'Russian math' (2017)
#216Earlier quoted context omitted.
yeah, but you are missing the point completely. I gave you a real life example: Even if everyone is equal, and has the same conditions, some people are just born smarter than others, and will put more effort and do better. Equality of conditions is a good thing to ask for, equality of outcome is stupid, as even in a murderous communist regime, was impossible to achieve as it goes against basic human nature. That's wh…
It seems unlikely that there's just a smart/dumb setting inside of each kid. Material conditions being equal don't mean that everything is equal. Some people have parents who value certain things and push their kids. Other people have some anxieties to get over before they can perform. Some people like being ahead of the class and put in effort to stay there.
> It seems unlikely that there's just a smart/dumb setting inside of each kid.
DNA
Re: American parents are sending their kids to 'Russian math' (2017)
#217Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 5a looks dodgy (probably just trying out numbers) You can find the 4 zeros of the left side by eyeball, and use that to construct the rest of the equation group you need. It's expected you've seen and solved this type of problem before taking the test. Not that many kids can come up with a working solution strategy on the fly.
"Trying out numbers" seems like the simpler approach to me. You have to multiply four consecutive numbers to get 1680. One of them must be 7 (since 7 divides 1680), one must be 5 or 10 for the same reason. That leaves only 3 possibilities, and you only have to check the middle one (5 x 6 x 7 x 8) since if the result too big or too small, you'll know which of the other two it is. OK - you weren't guaranteed the soluti…
Following the procedure taught in class (and I'm quite sure they didn't teach "make a guess") is safer. When you show the correct procedure and fumble say, and addition, near the end, you'll still get almost full points.
If you go off-road and get the wrong answer, it's up to how much the teacher likes you.
Re: American parents are sending their kids to 'Russian math' (2017)
#218It's a weird article. I think this idea of 'Russian math' is very nebulous, and is probably used as marketing tool nowadays by some schools abroad. I have graduated from one of the top physics/maths high schools in Russia, and yes we had great math education there, but that was an outlier. Outside a handful of schools the math education is pretty dismal. And even in the good math schools there are different ways of t…
Wait, are you a fellow 57er? I thought there might be quite a lot of math school alumni on HN.
Re: American parents are sending their kids to 'Russian math' (2017)
#219Earlier quoted context omitted.
In Romania, from what i recall, it was usually the beatings. Didnt like math? The teacher would simply use the pointing stick to smash your hands. I was fortunate enough to have liked math but some weren’t. And so there were the beatings. Those attending “olympiads” were brainwashed into thinking that somehow they were superior and at some point we had to look down upon those whom, god forbid, chose something else bu…
You are exaggerating, I've never seen a beating in school (from a teacher to a pupil). Was in school in Bucharest from the 90's to 00's, had loads of maths and other stem classes. If you didn't keep up you'd get a bad grade, if you didn't pass the year you'd have a chance to correct it during summer school, and worst you'd repeat the year. Nothing uncommon here. And I don't share your hate against the ones competing…
And there is your answer "from 90's to 00's". Beating was done in communist era, not after the fall of Iron Curtain.
I personally received beatings from my math teacher during middle school (5th to 8th grade), which was before '89. He would make me have the fingers up and together (think of like Italians argue) and then would hit my 5 thumbs altogether at once with a wooden stick.
Re: American parents are sending their kids to 'Russian math' (2017)
#220This is the video by the daughter of the founder of the Russian School of Math. We sent our son there over the summer, he enjoyed it and all the kids were pretty advanced in the class. California seems to want to hold everyone back in the name of equity. But that will force more people into the private school system, which is exactly what we did. I don’t trust the California government to have my children’s best inte…
Essentially large part of education falls onto the shoulder of parents, which is natural. I'm even preparing to sharpen up my Math/Physics/Electronics skills for the future. Time to re-learn those things that I mostly forgot!