Direct comparison reveals similarity, not superiority
6 Nov 2 1:11 PM · 6d ago · 7 comments · 1 source · development 6 of 9
A commenter who reviewed both Soviet and Canadian high school math textbooks concludes the books were essentially equivalent in difficulty—the perceived gap stems from different emphasis (geometry vs. algebra) and presentation style rather than rigor.
“My older sibling went to HS in Eastern Europe and kept the textbooks...the problem sets were basically interchange...I think the illusion comes from the different rates”
martythemaniakAndrey Kolmogorov Soviet mathematician; curriculum curatorTerence Tao Mathematician raised in the WestMagnus Carlsen Chess grandmaster raised in the West
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What people said 7 voices · verbatim
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>Individuals who went to great schools, emigrated and excelled in the West. They may have gone to better schools, with better teachers, or had parents who cared more etc.In my personal experience, it's much less related to circumstantial opportunities. The ladder was derived from Germany (the model country for engineering and science) and more or…
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At least this 1984 report on "Aspects of Soviet Secondary Education: School Performance and Teacher Accountability" https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/media/docum... claims that a more ambitious curriculum did not lead to more repeaters ("grade repeating has declined over the years"), but instead "most teachers have chosen the easier…
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They're not, it's an illusion.My older sibling went to HS in Eastern Europe and kept the textbooks, because my family had this same reverence towards math over there. I went to HS in Canada and in grade 12 when I was doing Calculus I had a look at the old textbooks and they were the same thing. Different styles certainly, but the problem sets were…
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>The whole "maybe math is too hard and we should just make it optional or dumb it down" that I have seen in US was just not something acceptable or plausible as a policy in that system.Growing up in Europe, while preparing for college access exams, my teacher recommended American textbooks for self study.His reasoning was: "they have the smartest…
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The hater comments and mental excuses by American posters are hilarious.The usa doesn't value its citizens education unless you belong to the top club and pay, europe is better and eastern europe used to be the best since that was all they had.This is coming from someone who went through the Swiss (probably was amongst the best in western Europe)…
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I actually prefer the policy of people repeating the grade, rather than school graduating people who dont understand basic math
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Because nobody complains in a dictatorship about anything. Everything is perfect by definition.
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