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<p>I did not assume that you were not familiar with the “stuff” I posted. I simply think that there isn’t much support or evidence in those reports that espouses your conclusions. But I believe that this could be chalked to a different interpretation of parental support, or to the ambiguous use of the terms. </p>
<p>And I will stop here.</p>
<p>“While most of our teachers were pretty good, there were very few who really impressed me with their brilliance.”</p>
<p>That’s fair, but this is also true of the lawyers and doctors I know.</p>
<p>I had a number of truly outstanding teachers in my K-12 years. Then again, I went to private schools that probably gave their teachers a lot less aggravation. Even within elite private schools where the whole staff is good, some teachers have a special level of genius, so schools have rules against parents demanding a particular teacher.</p>
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<p>There are more things in heaven and earth, nwcrazy, than are dreamt of in your philosophy. The algebra was a direct outgrowth of some successful mental math exercises (i.e., context) that ultimately led to the question of why they worked. At age 5, my son could calculate squares up to 100 in his head – calculate, not memorize (how boring would that be?). At age 6 he could calculate squares up to 1000 in his head.</p>
<p>To calculate, say, 32 squared, square the 30, then double 30 and multiple by 2 (because the ones digit is 2), square the 2 and add them up: 900 + 120 + 4 = 1024. All this is plain old algebra, (a + b)^2 = a^2 + 2ab + b^2, where 32 is broken into a tens component 30 (the a) and a ones component 2 (the b).</p>
<p>To calculate, say, 29 squared, square the next ten value up, 30, then double 30 and subtract it, square the 1 and add them up: 900 - 60 + 1 = 841. This, too, is plain old algebra, (a-b)^2 = a^2 - 2ab + b^2, where 29 is broken into a tens component 30 (the a) and a ones component, 1 (the b).</p>
<p>Two-digit numbers ending in 5 take seconds to solve: take the tens digit, multiply by the next higher tens digit and stick the digits --25 at the end. Thus, 15^2 = 1X2 + …25 = 225, 45^2 = 4x5, thus 2025, 85^2 = 8x9, thus 7225, and 105^2 = 10x11, thus 11,025.</p>
<p>The whole point of the original exercise was to show that math is internally consistent and that there is typically more than one way to solve a problem, some ways more efficient for a particular task than others. Gaining such knowledge is by no stretch of the imagination USELESS.</p>
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<p>It may be more damaging to stunt the natural curiosity as curiosity can be killed off.</p>
<p>Many kids who don’t get their questions answered will just quit asking questions. We may never know if they could have been “geniuses” - :(</p>
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<p>Sometimes you need to toss the reports and put feet on the ground or work out problems in the curricular materials themselves to get the real story.</p>
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<p>A handful of parents at the elementary school my children attended were able to choose which teachers their children would get. A few others were able to switch their children to other classes for such compelling reasons as “the child’s friends were in another class” or “I don’t want my child to have a teacher who is new to the school”. However the vast majority of parents in this school had no choice. I was one of those latter parents. It’s called politics.</p>
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<p>It’s always nice to have political pull in town.</p>
<p>^ I meant that I was one of the parents who did NOT have the political pull to choose my kids teachers.</p>
<p>How does the union not let you get rid of a bad teacher? The union makes sure you follow the process outlined in the contract or employment agreement to document poor performance. Isn’t the issue really a high paid administrator has not adequately documented poor performance?</p>
<p>But what is the real story? </p>
<p>How do you compare the changes in the education systems of Singapore, South Korea, Finland, and say Belgium? </p>
<p>You suggested that, based on you personal experience of a few months, and your wife’s history in Singapore, the parental support was a necessary component of a successful education system. One would be hard-pressed to deny that parental involvement, parental support, and a higher degree of parental education are all beneficial to the academic success of their chldren. But, as soon as one accepts that part, the next step is to see how prevalent it might be in other countries. And that is where a statement that intimates that the parental support is a necessary condition for making positive changes falls flat. And that is because, while it might be present in Singapore or South Korea, that might not be the case in the European countries named above. </p>
<p>Accordingly, one needs to look for elements that might prevalent in all systems. A comparison between successful Asian systems and European counterparts should also disregard elements such the famed Asian work ethic, or the focus on education in climbing the social ladder. In this case, the parental involvement reported through personal experiences in Singapore are mostly absent in Europe --just as is the obsession with most facets of education. Are there, however, similarities and common denominators? </p>
<p>In this case, there are found in the form in the preparation and selectivity of the teachers. And changes that were direct results of changes in government policies and support. </p>
<p>Yes, there are elements that can be seen through eyes that are close to the action; and other elements that can only be evaluated through a more distant lens, and through objective comparisons. </p>
<p>It all depends one is interested to uncover. The causes or the false correlations!</p>
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<p>I know.</p>
<p>Did you contact your school board members over this issue? One guy that I know ran for school board when his daughter was pre-school. They were originally planning to send her to private school but felt that they could change things from the inside when their daughter hit school-age.</p>
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<p>Because that is the raison d’</p>
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<p>I posted that last comment to see if you would actually stop as you said that you would.</p>
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<p>Pick a country and I’ll take a look.</p>
<p>BTW, I did look at an article on Finnish education and it did mention parental involvement.</p>
<p>The problem that I have with this particular statement is that homeschooling works quite well for a large number of kids where parents have absolutely no SOE-style education. There are studies showing that it works quite well with parents that only have high-school diplomas.</p>
<p>I manage between 150-200 government union workers depending on staffing levels at any specific time. I understand how the process works. The problem is mainly with poor managers not doing their job.</p>
<p>@LoremIpsum—I stand by what I said. When I think of algebra, I’m talking about more than just coming up with mental techniques for doing calculations. For example, I’m talking about looking at a problem such as finding the speed of a car relative to another, then finding relations/equations using variables to problem solve. I’m talking about recognizing the relation of one object to another, etc. It’s plain old algebra.</p>
<p>Nearly ALL 6 year olds have not developed the mental capacity to understand these things. It’s developmental biology- They will in due time as their brains develop. Now if you want a child to perform calculations, fine. BUT as children grow older, the truly gifted ones will figure out how to calculate things. And they will learn algebra and various other math with a vengeance. It just happens. I always point to my kid brother as an example. As a really gifted person, he didn’t learn algebra until the the 8th grade. But once he did, he excelled at it along with every math thrown to him. He didn’t have to learn shortcut techniques to calculate at 6 years of age. But once he developed an understanding of math, he naturally figured out how things worked on his own (as a kid).Truly smart kids figure things out when the time comes.</p>
<p>Now if your kid is really a gifted kid, I wish him the best. It’s just that I have seen so many kids that can do amazing things because they were taught to do them by their parents. But in the end, the kids were not exceptional from a biological sense.</p>
<p>Also, unless the parent repeats (what they’re teaching) often their kids forget what they learned before the Summer ends. At a young age, when things are taught without context, the “stuff” does not last in their brains very long.</p>
<p>But good luck with your kid.</p>
<p>I wish you the best.</p>
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<p>I meant to stop before hitting the keyboard with a comment I would regret later! :)</p>
<p>As far as the countries, I made mention of the selection and training of potential teachers in South Korea. Here’s a good start for this country. </p>
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<p>[South</a> Korea: Teacher and Principal Quality Center on International Education Benchmarking](<a href=“http://www.ncee.org/programs-affiliates/center-on-international-education-benchmarking/top-performing-countries/south-korea-overview/south-korea-teacher-and-principal-quality/]South”>Korea - NCEE)</p>
<p>Finland is another great example of how the teachers are slotted based on their academic preparation. Here is the same information:</p>
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<p>[Finland:</a> Teacher and Principal Quality Center on International Education Benchmarking](<a href=“http://www.ncee.org/programs-affiliates/center-on-international-education-benchmarking/top-performing-countries/finland-overview/finland-teacher-and-principal-quality/]Finland:”>Finland - NCEE)</p>
<p>Here’s Singapore’s counterpart.</p>
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<p>PS Click on the links for top-performing countries. It’s a well organized site.</p>
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<p>@BCEagle91—You have a great point. </p>
<p>That is one of the things that I was worried about…with my own daughter. In fact, I made a conscious effort to hold back the reigns and let my kid develop naturally. As a person educated in the sciences and with a career in the software industry, I could cram soooo much information into my child’s brain…if I wanted to… But in the end, I decided against it.</p>
<p>BTW I think my kid has an extremely high spatial/visual acuity level. It’s genetics, because my brother has it too. I don’t think there are many people that can play chess with their eyes closed, like my bro’. Or can visualize in one’s head the geometry of molecules (electrons) in a simple chemical reaction like he can.</p>
<p>As for my kid, she’s already won 1st place in a district wide art show that we didn’t know about. Apparently, her teacher forgot to tell us that she entered our child in the show:-)</p>
<p>My mission is to let my kid learn naturally and to have fuuuuuuuuun while doing it.</p>
<p>We should no longer allow women to pursue any profession other than nursing or teaching. That would keep costs down and standards would increase because we could force all the smart women into those jobs. All the other women that are not at the top could be secretaries or sales clerks. It would be a perfect world.</p>
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<p>I have been in electronic forums on education since the mid-1980s and I’ve seen many make the comment that they are ending the discussion or ignoring it. It’s not particularly hard to get them to come back. You just have to tweak them the right way.</p>
<p>I’m not saying that teacher quality doesn’t matter but that parental involvement is necessary. Unless you’re essentially replacing the parent (which has been tried by putting poor kids essentially in boarding schools).</p>
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<p>Players at the mid-amateur level do this. Their eyes are physically closed but one of the ways where you normally analyze a board is to look at your possible moves, select the best four moves that you can make, then look at the best three or four responses that your opponent can make in response to your move (so you have 9-16 boards to keep in your head), and then continue the process though you’d probably prune paths along the way. Better players can go to greater depth levels and may be better at pruning paths and also spotting patterns of combinations.</p>