5 ms·

Soon: everyone is a genius

dagw 5y ago
Isn't an education system where all students master all the material they are supposed to master, and thus everybody gets A's, a worthy goal to strive for?
- inter_netuser 5y ago
  I’ve been blessed in my life to attend an “elite” high school that produced IMO medalists on the regular. I’ve attended a sports academy as well from K to middle school, and briefly competed internationally in a junior age bracket. I’ve lost any faith in the concept of “nurture” after watching two things right in front of my eyes: ive watched some young kids steamroll adults who dedicated their entire life to the sport for a decade or two. it only took six months of training, and those prodigies weren’t particularly obsessed about their training either. It was the same with academic studies. Some 1-in-million people were truly special. with either ridiculously deep insight where they could see patterns in problem sets nobody else could, or memory that allowed them to memorise 200 pages overnight. Not quite verbatim but quite precise, after only reading it once/twice. True genius was nothing short of supernatural. There is a reason why we instinctively call it a “gift”. Unfortunately, the other part of the spectrum exists as well, what we call special education, or the unfortunate kids with head injuries, bad infections, abused or just born that way. It’s quite sad. What you are proposing is to create an educational system where both an IMO medalist and the special ed student both receive an A in math? These are the extremes, but the gradient doesn’t just disappear between them. You’ll just teach at the slowest students pace, and eventually put stronger students on the “gifted” track, or super-specialize them based on their interests.
  - dagw 5y ago
    What you are proposing is to create an educational system where both an IMO medalist and the special ed student both receive an A in math? If they have both mastered the material set out in the national curriculum and achieve the set number of right answers on the final exam, why shouldn't they both receive an A in math? I majored in math at university and we had lots of students who had gotten an 'A' in mathematics, which included everything from a kid who represented his country at the IMO finals to lazy kids who had barely scraped over line. So even today their range of talent was massive and that 'A' grade in itself offered very little indication how well they would actually go on to do. A High school grade in itself cannot be granular enough to identify those "1-in-million people", so it's pointless to even try to use it for that. It should be an indicator of how much of the curriculum you have mastered. If you want to further identify extraordinary talented and passionate future mathematicians (or historians or doctors) within that cohort, then you're going to need different tools.

dagw 5y ago

Isn't an education system where all students master all the material they are supposed to master, and thus everybody gets A's, a worthy goal to strive for?

inter_netuser 5y ago
I’ve been blessed in my life to attend an “elite” high school that produced IMO medalists on the regular. I’ve attended a sports academy as well from K to middle school, and briefly competed internationally in a junior age bracket. I’ve lost any faith in the concept of “nurture” after watching two things right in front of my eyes: ive watched some young kids steamroll adults who dedicated their entire life to the sport for a decade or two. it only took six months of training, and those prodigies weren’t particularly obsessed about their training either. It was the same with academic studies. Some 1-in-million people were truly special. with either ridiculously deep insight where they could see patterns in problem sets nobody else could, or memory that allowed them to memorise 200 pages overnight. Not quite verbatim but quite precise, after only reading it once/twice. True genius was nothing short of supernatural. There is a reason why we instinctively call it a “gift”. Unfortunately, the other part of the spectrum exists as well, what we call special education, or the unfortunate kids with head injuries, bad infections, abused or just born that way. It’s quite sad. What you are proposing is to create an educational system where both an IMO medalist and the special ed student both receive an A in math? These are the extremes, but the gradient doesn’t just disappear between them. You’ll just teach at the slowest students pace, and eventually put stronger students on the “gifted” track, or super-specialize them based on their interests.
- dagw 5y ago
  What you are proposing is to create an educational system where both an IMO medalist and the special ed student both receive an A in math? If they have both mastered the material set out in the national curriculum and achieve the set number of right answers on the final exam, why shouldn't they both receive an A in math? I majored in math at university and we had lots of students who had gotten an 'A' in mathematics, which included everything from a kid who represented his country at the IMO finals to lazy kids who had barely scraped over line. So even today their range of talent was massive and that 'A' grade in itself offered very little indication how well they would actually go on to do. A High school grade in itself cannot be granular enough to identify those "1-in-million people", so it's pointless to even try to use it for that. It should be an indicator of how much of the curriculum you have mastered. If you want to further identify extraordinary talented and passionate future mathematicians (or historians or doctors) within that cohort, then you're going to need different tools.