As a Portuguese citizen, I was not exposed to Russian mathematics during my entire academic career until I entered university. Whilst slightly better than the UK, our educational system was also not brilliant when it came to maths, and we only started to do calculus close to Year 12 (the last year before university). Anyways, my one and only brush with Russian mathematics was as follows - I flunked Integral and Diffe…
Where can I get these books in Spanish?
American parents are sending their kids to 'Russian math' (2017)
491–500 of 558 posts
Re: American parents are sending their kids to 'Russian math' (2017)
#492Earlier quoted context omitted.
We had those literature assignments as well. But in 12 years that happened a couple times most. Now don't get me started on literature writing assignment that are strongly advised to start in certain ways and it's best to just memorise the beginning off examples and just change few words....
Interesting to hear about an experience that's pretty much the same as mine, but rebalanced differently. For us, writing was the same way as yours ("strongly advised to start in certain ways and it's best to just memorise the beginning off examples and just change few words"), but it only happened a few times at most, and more towards the latter years, while reciting stuff in lit classes was the norm the entire time.…
On the other hand, how do teach someone handwriting skills? Writing down a passage is better than random blabery IMO. I'll take the must dull passage any day over several pages of synthetic exercises.
For the record - my handwriting sucks.
Re: American parents are sending their kids to 'Russian math' (2017)
#493Earlier quoted context omitted.
> > people typically come from the richest/most connected families in their home country > It depends. Some of these people (their parents) left their home country because of economic reasons. Another common reason for leaving is discrimination. Those people who leave because of discrimination are very rarely well connected or wealthy, or they usually wouldn't have to leave. Then there are the outright asylum seekers…
It seems like everyone replying has ignored my caveats. Most international students are not there because of discrimination they faced. Most people who are seeking asylum or undocumented in the US are from the Americas. For international students not from the Americas, most are wealthy or well connected by the standards of their home country, although often not by American standards. It's not uncommon to hear about t…
I think you are generalising and exagerating a bit. As it happens, I had a colleague and an acquaitance who both worked as a taxi drivers in Chicago and knew each other. They weren't bankers, nor farmers' kids. Their parents were middle class teachers and accountants. Reality is more boring and mundane than you might imagine.
Re: American parents are sending their kids to 'Russian math' (2017)
#494Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a Brit, I was never any good at mental math at school, I still cannot do that hardest one without a calculator. But later on, I swam like a fish in water in geometry, trig, logic and loved algebra and moved from the last of my year to one of the top. I was doing integration etc a good two years before it was being taught in the higher classes. These skills are good for programming and computers. There was a limit;…
I'm in exactly the same position at the age of 40. I've attempted to memorise the times table to no avail. It seems to me one of those things that you need to know cold. And then from there you can look at other things. To me mathematics is a thing of beauty I just find I havent found the right handle to grasp it with. I ask myself what would be the order in which one could most easily absorb the material. Does it re…
> I ask myself what would be the order in which one could most easily absorb the material. Does it really start with rote learning?
What are you trying to learn and why?
Math starts with axioms, which are some statements that everything else is built from. Axioms, as far as I understand, can't be derived. These are the most basic building blocks. Then through logic and deductions other machinery is built up. There is a certain amount that does need to be internalized or memorized, but that is the same for learning the alphabet.
In math classes, at least at the university level in Canada, knowing the statement of definitions and theorems covered exactly is somewhat important. If it's a proof based course this is more important, but the theorem will tell you where it's applicable, so knowing that helps.
Math builds. It took me until a third year complex analysis course to build up enough courage to ask a prof how he solves problems. Basically he said he has a hierarchy of theorems in a given field. When he sees a problem he will go through each of them starting with the easiest to apply and check the assumptions. If it applies, then he will use it and get the result. If not, move on to the next one. He goes and looks up the exact statements and how to go through with the calculations and checks. If you forget something, look it up.
Eventually after solving enough problems you'll build up some intuition and muscle memory for the problems.
As to how to progress, I am not sure. Some mathematicians say you kind of just pick things up and then connect the threads later on. It's not always possible to march through in a linear manner because there isn't an absolute ordering in what to learn.
There should be an appendix in the back of a textbook that reviews or outlines what's required for the book. There will be a few questions that rely on outside knowledge, but one can still learn the majority of the concepts without going to far afield for review.
Start with what you want and fill in the rest of the gaps by working backwards.
I wouldn't worry about memorizing the times tables (unless maybe you're interested in number theory?) if you're trying to learn math. Know algebra, functions, and graphing as a minimum, then start to learn what you want... I would just use a calculator or pencil and paper to multiply things out on homework. If this is for personal benefit, then don't hesitate to get some numerical methods involved to help learning the material.
Re: American parents are sending their kids to 'Russian math' (2017)
#495Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe your province isn't too bad yet, but these things tend to spread: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/vancouver-sc... With no advanced/honours tract, you have two choices. Subjects too difficult for a large portion of the class, or everyone gets education tailored to the least capable students. Clearly, they aren't removing advanced classes, then suddenly failing 1/2 the class...
The article also mentions that AP (and, presumably, IB) are being maintained. These programs provide a recognized curriculum and the courses are typically taken by students who want advanced classes. I also took a quick glance at the BC mathematics curriculum, which is typically offered in different tiers, and it is offered in different tiers. Science appears to take the usual tact of a general course, with specialis…
It is also worth noting that there would be significant public push back if there was a true degradation in the curriculum.
Not so sure on that one. I agree some would push back, certainly. I feel it is fewer every year, with parents not caring for anything but what a piece of paper says.
But, perhaps I am a cynic, or am reading too many such stories.
Re: American parents are sending their kids to 'Russian math' (2017)
#496Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sorry you had such an experience! There really is a lot to unpack here. As the article describes, memorization of “formulas” doesn’t actually work for my students and leaves those that it “worked” disadvantaged in future learning. My personal guess is the “not being good at math” originates from this, at least in part. It’s a confidence killer for sure that on one had you are being forced to do something unnatural (m…
> My personal guess is the “not being good at math” originates from this, at least in part. It’s a confidence killer for sure that on one had you are being forced to do something unnatural (memorize weird looking formulas) and on the other give a somewhat easy, yet demeaning, way out by saying “it’s ok, you are just not good at math”. Honestly, it is more direct at the instructors instead of the mathematics itself. I…
Like most things there probably is more than one cause, and I suspect a pretty big one is around compound effect of instructors having poor instruction themselves and then having to admit that they themselves don’t really know the subject.
Re: American parents are sending their kids to 'Russian math' (2017)
#497Earlier quoted context omitted.
Interesting to hear about an experience that's pretty much the same as mine, but rebalanced differently. For us, writing was the same way as yours ("strongly advised to start in certain ways and it's best to just memorise the beginning off examples and just change few words"), but it only happened a few times at most, and more towards the latter years, while reciting stuff in lit classes was the norm the entire time.…
On the other hand, how do teach someone handwriting skills? Writing down a passage is better than random blabery IMO. I'll take the must dull passage any day over several pages of synthetic exercises. For the record - my handwriting sucks.
>On the other hand, how do teach someone handwriting skills? Writing down a passage is better than random blabery IMO
I agree, however, doing it way past elementary school seems like a solid way of wasting time. When you are trying to learn writing or you are in elementary school, sure. But spending hours upon hours rewriting long passages multiple times due to random non-editable typos in late middle school felt mind-numbing and downright awful.
And of course, as you progressed in grades, less attention of graders was focused on the actual handwriting quality, with passages getting longer and more convoluted, so the handwriting tended to degrade the further you got in your elementary/middle/high school education. Not even mentioning what happened to it after high school, because by then (unless your handwriting was completely unreadable) no one cared.
And no, it didn't help in the long-term with handwriting at all. None of the adults tend to have textbook-good handwriting, it would barely even get a passing score in the best scenario (and that would be an exception). And just like in western countries, let's not even mention doctors' handwriting (but that's completely irrelevant to my point).
Re: American parents are sending their kids to 'Russian math' (2017)
#498Earlier quoted context omitted.
It appears that that move has increased enrollment in higher level math classes in high school: https://www.sfchronicle.com/education/article/SF-schools-mov... See also some of the motivation behind the change: https://priceonomics.com/why-did-san-francisco-schools-stop-... I would argue part of the problem with the American system is that trying to rush students through a rigid curriculum leaves the teachers no choi…
Well, according to that article "Advanced Placement calculus courses has declined by nearly 13 percent over the past two years." Anyway, the policy was made with intention of forcing equality, not improving math education.
You are both correct, but the comment you were replying to was definitely written in a way that feels misleading about "increased enrollment in higher level math classes in high school".
TL;DR from someone who read the full article: that change caused an increase in Precalculus enrollment and a decrease in AP Calculus enrollment.
Which I don't really feel good about. The quote closer to the end made me feel even worse:
>“For so long, people have held up this idea that AP Calculus is the gold standard (for college admission),” Lizzy Hull Barnes said, a district math supervisor
And those kids haven't entered college at the time of writing, and the article points out that they indeed don't know how this change will affect college admission prospects of those students. Time will tell, and hopefully my bad feeling about this change was misplaced. But given that this was written over 2 years ago (so most of those high school students have graduated by now), and we haven't had a follow-up "this change brought us some great benefits" article, I am afraid the results might have not shown any benefits of this approach.
Re: American parents are sending their kids to 'Russian math' (2017)
#499Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Essentially large part of education falls onto the shoulder of parents, which is natural. Have to disagree. A parent can't be simultaneously up to speed on Math, English, a 2nd language, Biology, Science, History or any of the other subjects that a child will learn in school School is meant to teach, parents are meant to socialise. Unfortunately that seems to have been swapped around somewhere along the line.
They absolutely can. Most adults should be able to immediately recall the learnings from elementary to high school. This is not rocket science or highly specialized knowledge. The fact that an arbitrary american adult educated in this country cannot easily differentiate and name some works of shakespeare and provide some quotes, etc, should be o source of national shame.
You're assuming your child will take the same subjects that you did. How do you recall a subject you've never taken?
Re: American parents are sending their kids to 'Russian math' (2017)
#500When I started high school in Canada, my math grades were pretty bad. Probably in the 60%s (a C letter grade). I remember staring at a quadratic equation, struggling to understand why those 3 terms drew a curve. I had no intuition for it. The summer before 11th grade, my father decided he had enough. It was time to learn math, Soviet style. He sat me down for a few hours each morning with problems from 6th and 7th gr…
> and a gold medal winner (in the Soviet Union, the top graduates from each high school were awarded a gold medal - goes to show how they valued academics I suppose).
I'm not sure where in Canada you moved to, but there are Governor General awards [1] to the top graduating students. It's bronze for top high school graduate, silver for bachelor's, and gold for higher degrees.
[1] https://www.gg.ca/en/honours/governor-generals-awards/govern...