The Great Math Race

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As an Asian-American immigrant with no networks, hooks and connections, I always felt that my kids will have a better chance of being successful if they are excelling in education and other hard to learn skills.

The higher the academic barrier to entry for a sought after opportunity, the more the playing field is leveled for my kids.

So, the Great Math Race is the only chance of equality and equity for my kids because they are being judged on their hard-work, intelligence and mastery.

Math is not everything. It’s definitely an Asian American obsession.

Yes, Math is not everything. It is one of the things though. Look where China is in AI, EV, solar power, infrasturcture, weapon systems, manufacturing, space race, rare earth mining! All because of a strong Math background.

So, my kids excel in Math, other subjects, ECs, solo sports, scholastic events, volunteer work etc. But, because they also excel in Math, they are able to take advantage of opportunities and outcompete others.

And also recognize that the US system really is not great at teaching math. We are way behind. I'm in a top-rated public district and our 3rd graders have started the year with single digit and single+double digit addition. THIRD grade.

+ 1
What I can't understand is why is that? The US had the best textbooks for Math IMO. I have bought and sent so many 2nd hand Math textbooks of all levels to my country of origin for my family members because these books are treasures. But, now the schools themselves are not using textbooks at all. Why did US did this about-turn?

My kids were in MCPS when MCPS had a great reputation. Even then, I was basically tutoring my kids by myself in all the subjects at home, using Teacher Edition math books. The level of disorganization in education in US is mind boggling.

- Immigrant mom.

I think it pretty much went off track after Sputnik got people spending too much money on developing dumb new methods. Math seemed to have been relatively untouched by the waves of fads that cycle through the rest of education until then. That smart women really began to move out of teaching into other fields did not help. Currently we're in the unpleasant confluence of Jo Boaler, technomadness, equity, and post-covid absurdities, so this is close to the worst it's been. Hopefully some of these will recede soon and be replaced by fads that are less terrible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As an Asian-American immigrant with no networks, hooks and connections, I always felt that my kids will have a better chance of being successful if they are excelling in education and other hard to learn skills.

The higher the academic barrier to entry for a sought after opportunity, the more the playing field is leveled for my kids.

So, the Great Math Race is the only chance of equality and equity for my kids because they are being judged on their hard-work, intelligence and mastery.

Math is not everything. It’s definitely an Asian American obsession.

Yes, Math is not everything. It is one of the things though. Look where China is in AI, EV, solar power, infrasturcture, weapon systems, manufacturing, space race, rare earth mining! All because of a strong Math background.

So, my kids excel in Math, other subjects, ECs, solo sports, scholastic events, volunteer work etc. But, because they also excel in Math, they are able to take advantage of opportunities and outcompete others.

And also recognize that the US system really is not great at teaching math. We are way behind. I'm in a top-rated public district and our 3rd graders have started the year with single digit and single+double digit addition. THIRD grade.

+ 1
What I can't understand is why is that? The US had the best textbooks for Math IMO. I have bought and sent so many 2nd hand Math textbooks of all levels to my country of origin for my family members because these books are treasures. But, now the schools themselves are not using textbooks at all. Why did US did this about-turn?

My kids were in MCPS when MCPS had a great reputation. Even then, I was basically tutoring my kids by myself in all the subjects at home, using Teacher Edition math books. The level of disorganization in education in US is mind boggling.

- Immigrant mom.

I think it pretty much went off track after Sputnik got people spending too much money on developing dumb new methods. Math seemed to have been relatively untouched by the waves of fads that cycle through the rest of education until then. That smart women really began to move out of teaching into other fields did not help. Currently we're in the unpleasant confluence of Jo Boaler, technomadness, equity, and post-covid absurdities, so this is close to the worst it's been. Hopefully some of these will recede soon and be replaced by fads that are less terrible.

Some of the best textbooks, like Dolciani prealgebra/algebra1/algebra2/precalc and Jurgensen geometry were written after Sputnik as part of the new math movement. Not to mention the Elementary Mathematics program that now lives on as EMF Math.