b....@c****e.com
01/08/1991 19:19:55 UTC

India watchers may note that one of the five or so members of US team is

Kiran S. Kedalya of Washington (NYT) who is obviously of Indian parentage.

At the risk of appearing to misinterpret this statement, I would like

to point out the real benefit of such statistics (the top ten performers

in the olympiad, etc.)

It does not matter so much that he is of Indian origin. The real issue is

whether the educational system in this country, or any other for that matter,

can produce topnotch mathematicians (assuming that the olympiad is a

test of mathematical talent). I am not denying that remnants of Indian

cultural values in us would influence our children. But the statistics

reflect, in my opinion, the opportunities to develop world-class

mathematical skills, no matter how inadequate math-teaching in US is made

out to be.

On a different note, one wonders the real benefit of objective-type talent

tests in general. Recently, I observed a commercial for tools to improve

math-skills. Not surprisingly, their test of math skills seemed limited

to multiplying two digit numbers, taking cube roots of perfect cubes etc.

How much do these skills really reflect a person's ability to solve real

life problems? I suppose that invites little debate. But consider the slightly

more border line case: Has anyone seen the commercial for

"Where there is will, there is an A," how grades have shot up from Cs to Bs

and As after listening to the three hour tapes? If you listen carefully

to the commercial, it is not difficult to isolate the paradoxes. Yet, when

professors of univs come on tv and tell you that they have replaced their

own programs with these tapes, you cannot dismiss it so easily.

Is there anyone out there who has studied/listened to these tapes?

-Balaji

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Pub: 02 Mar 2023 12:14 UTC
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