Reply to Congratulations to the 3 MCPS Seniors who are Intel/Regeneron finalists

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]How come Asian Americans excel only in STEM?

I’m sure this isn’t completely true, but it certainly seems like it. Is it because math is easier to excel in by simply working ahead? I understand that Asian culture values hard work over innate gifts. [b]With math you don’t need to be gifted. You just have to study, study, study[/b]. So maybe math is more straightforward than language arts in that regard. Math? You just work ahead—either in weekend school, kumon, Kahn, or with mom or dad. [/quote]

Oh, my, you think the US. Math Olympiad team can win the first place this year simple because all Asian-American team members study hard? By the way, if you haven't noticed, this year the entire team is made of Chinese and Indian Americans, all boys, extremely politically incorrect.

https://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/2018/july/us-wins-math-olympiad.html[/quote]

Actually. Yeah, I do. Mathematicians agree. Math competitions are something you work hard at. It’s all about study, study, study. [/quote]

Sorry, my husband is a mathematician. I have a PhD in physics. A handful of our college classmates won gold medals from math olympiad or physics olympiad, some of whom are math or physics professors now. We even have a friend nominated for Fields Medal. None of us believe that math only requires study, study and study. You need talent to master it. [/quote]

Nobel prize-winning theoretical physicist Richard Feynman disagrees with you —

“You ask me if an ordinary person by studying hard would get to be able to imagine these things like i imagine. Of Course!..I was an ordinary person who studied hard. There is no miracle people. It just happened they got interested in these things and they learned all these stuff. They’re just people!!There is no talent special miracle ability to understand quantum mechanics or a miracle ability to imagine electromagnetic fields that comes without practice and reading and learning and mathematics. So if you say you take an ordinary person whose willing to devote a great deal of time on studying and thinking and mathematics and so on. Then he’s become a scientist!”

-Richard Feynman

Video of interview at: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lr8sVailoLw

BTW, he says some very interesting stuff in the rest of the video about the individuality of the way in which each human brain stores information. Worth thinking about as we consider who is “smart” or “not smart”.  As a long time tutor with considerable experience working with students with learning disabilities, I can see how different explanations resonate with different students, and that the typical public school teacher rarely has more than one way to explain concepts.

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