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There are definitely differences between people (e.g. differences in personality, interests, working memory, focus, emotional control, ...) But my impression i

There are definitely differences between people (e.g. differences in personality, interests, working memory, focus, emotional control, ...) But my impression is that differences in (a) preparation/trained skills and (b) other context like diet, exercise, amount of sleep, family/relationship stress, illness, .... are more significant. At the least, nearly everyone is capable of successfully handling the standard school curriculum, given a few hours per week of 1:1 tutoring by an expert.

pedrosorio 8y ago
> nobody improves 10 times faster > At the least, nearly everyone is capable of successfully handling the standard school curriculum, given a few hours per week of 1:1 tutoring by an expert. Your second statement does not imply the first one. "Nearly everyone" may be capable of successfully handling the standard curriculum, and still, given the same resources, and hours/week some people may progress 10x faster than others.
- jacobolus 8y ago
  I am in starkest disagreement with this claim from the top-level comment: > I think that a lot of students don't have what it takes to learn the mathematics curriculum they signed up for, no matter how you teach them. Unless “a lot of students” means “the < 10% of the population with a severe mental handicap most of whom never went to college”... which okay, I am happy to concede that. I also dispute that with all else held equal, certain people are inherently “10 times faster” at “improving” at mathematics. This just doesn’t seem plausible to me. For context, I have observed close-up several of the smartest math students in the world, and also spent a decent amount of time trying to help people who were heavily struggling with remedial coursework. I would even claim that the latter group were “improving faster” than the former group.

pedrosorio 8y ago

> nobody improves 10 times faster > At the least, nearly everyone is capable of successfully handling the standard school curriculum, given a few hours per week of 1:1 tutoring by an expert. Your second statement does not imply the first one. "Nearly everyone" may be capable of successfully handling the standard curriculum, and still, given the same resources, and hours/week some people may progress 10x faster than others.

jacobolus 8y ago
I am in starkest disagreement with this claim from the top-level comment: > I think that a lot of students don't have what it takes to learn the mathematics curriculum they signed up for, no matter how you teach them. Unless “a lot of students” means “the < 10% of the population with a severe mental handicap most of whom never went to college”... which okay, I am happy to concede that. I also dispute that with all else held equal, certain people are inherently “10 times faster” at “improving” at mathematics. This just doesn’t seem plausible to me. For context, I have observed close-up several of the smartest math students in the world, and also spent a decent amount of time trying to help people who were heavily struggling with remedial coursework. I would even claim that the latter group were “improving faster” than the former group.