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I also heard that the big after-school companies are discussing acquiring the US companies to survive. I really wish they can't. I love AOPS and RSM for their p

I also heard that the big after-school companies are discussing acquiring the US companies to survive. I really wish they can't. I love AOPS and RSM for their passion and their focus on fundamentals. I'd hate to see those companies turn into the soulless TAL, and teach students to memorize all kinds of patterns. Case in point, below is how TAL teaches elementary students to solve problems: Bob and Alice have 10 candies in total, and Bob has 2 more candies than Alice. How many candies do Bob and Alice each have? TAL's solution: this is called addition-subtraction problem. Add the two numbers and divide the sum by two, you get the bigger value for Bob. Subtract the difference from the total and then divide the result by two, and you get the smaller value for Alice. No mention of why. No mention of underlying intuition. No mention of any mathematical concepts. This is the most abhorrent teaching I've ever seen.

esrh 5y ago
However, if you were to memorize that solution, you can get really fast and accurate with relatively little actual math ability. I believe that method probably will have the greatest increase in test scores for the lowest common denominator. It really is quite abhorrent though.
- atatatat 5y ago
  They're doing "educate well enough to do the paperwork of our businesses" better than the US.
- derefr 5y ago
  Sounds like what China really needs, then, is a new approach to testing that manages to distinguish deep understanding of the underlying concepts from mechanistic/formulaic memorization. (Tangent: Has anyone yet tried to prompt GPT3 to generate "deep" word problems?)
- idiotsecant 5y ago
  On the other hand if you're a US nationalist interested in your team succeeding against the Chinese team this is excellent news.
Teknoman117 5y ago
What's a TAL?
- hintymad 5y ago
  A tutoring company. It’s stock ticker is TAL.
Cosmin_C 5y ago
Genuinely curious on what their proposed solution is if they have 10 candies in total and Alice has 3 candies more than Bob.
- thaumasiotes 5y ago
  10+3 / 2 = 6.5 candies for Alice. 10-3 / 2 = 3.5 candies for Bob. You may think that's a strange solution, but it's the only one that matches the problem statement. What was your solution?
  - Cosmin_C 5y ago
    Well first of all I am not a mathematician, but I enjoyed assimilating the basic principles of math. Considering the problem as follows: "Bob and Alice have 10 candies in total, and Bob has 2 more candies than Alice. How many candies do Bob and Alice each have?" My own solution would be to just define the variables as follows: Bob = Alice + 2; Bob + Alice = 10; 2xAlice + 2 = 10; Alice = (has) 4 candies; Bob = (has) 6 candies. Adjusting the problem with an odd difference instead of an even number we have: "Bob and Alice have 10 candies in total, and Bob has 3 more candies than Alice. How many candies do Bob and Alice each have?" Bob = Alice + 3; 2xAlice + 3 = 10; Alice = (has) 3.5 candies; Bob = (has) 6.5 candies. I find my solution to be easier to understand and somehow more logical than "let's add/substract this and that and divide by two". Probably my main issue was explaining to a kid how having 3.5 and 6.5 candies works seeing candies I known all my life are basically unbreakable (unless you have a kid's teeths which is known to be able to devour metal). As an anecdote I recently dated a lady who has a teenage daughter and she showed me the math exams her youngling has been taking. Having never been one to withdraw from a challenge, even mildly implied, I printed the things and started working on them only to be horrified how much I've forgotten in terms of elementary mathematics. I genuinely felt shame even though I scored a decent number (but nothing to write home about). I feel we're failing our children in how we're pumping them with information but without always teaching them how to learn and that makes me really sad :(

esrh 5y ago

However, if you were to memorize that solution, you can get really fast and accurate with relatively little actual math ability. I believe that method probably will have the greatest increase in test scores for the lowest common denominator. It really is quite abhorrent though.

atatatat 5y ago
They're doing "educate well enough to do the paperwork of our businesses" better than the US.
derefr 5y ago
Sounds like what China really needs, then, is a new approach to testing that manages to distinguish deep understanding of the underlying concepts from mechanistic/formulaic memorization. (Tangent: Has anyone yet tried to prompt GPT3 to generate "deep" word problems?)
idiotsecant 5y ago
On the other hand if you're a US nationalist interested in your team succeeding against the Chinese team this is excellent news.

Teknoman117 5y ago

What's a TAL?

hintymad 5y ago
A tutoring company. It’s stock ticker is TAL.

Cosmin_C 5y ago

Genuinely curious on what their proposed solution is if they have 10 candies in total and Alice has 3 candies more than Bob.

thaumasiotes 5y ago
10+3 / 2 = 6.5 candies for Alice. 10-3 / 2 = 3.5 candies for Bob. You may think that's a strange solution, but it's the only one that matches the problem statement. What was your solution?
- Cosmin_C 5y ago
  Well first of all I am not a mathematician, but I enjoyed assimilating the basic principles of math. Considering the problem as follows: "Bob and Alice have 10 candies in total, and Bob has 2 more candies than Alice. How many candies do Bob and Alice each have?" My own solution would be to just define the variables as follows: Bob = Alice + 2; Bob + Alice = 10; 2xAlice + 2 = 10; Alice = (has) 4 candies; Bob = (has) 6 candies. Adjusting the problem with an odd difference instead of an even number we have: "Bob and Alice have 10 candies in total, and Bob has 3 more candies than Alice. How many candies do Bob and Alice each have?" Bob = Alice + 3; 2xAlice + 3 = 10; Alice = (has) 3.5 candies; Bob = (has) 6.5 candies. I find my solution to be easier to understand and somehow more logical than "let's add/substract this and that and divide by two". Probably my main issue was explaining to a kid how having 3.5 and 6.5 candies works seeing candies I known all my life are basically unbreakable (unless you have a kid's teeths which is known to be able to devour metal). As an anecdote I recently dated a lady who has a teenage daughter and she showed me the math exams her youngling has been taking. Having never been one to withdraw from a challenge, even mildly implied, I printed the things and started working on them only to be horrified how much I've forgotten in terms of elementary mathematics. I genuinely felt shame even though I scored a decent number (but nothing to write home about). I feel we're failing our children in how we're pumping them with information but without always teaching them how to learn and that makes me really sad :(