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