Accounts of implementation gaps in Soviet system surface
8 Nov 2 1:52 PM · 5d ago · 3 comments · 1 source · development 8 of 9
A commenter from within the Soviet system notes the official curriculum's rigor masked widespread teacher disengagement and grade-inflation—students were often advanced despite poor performance to preserve statistics.
“he take an old, eight-story Tsarist-era building in Moscow—with a view of the Neva—and fill it with 1,000 mathematicians armed with slide rules, chalkboards, and chalk. The result is the same.”
effed3, HN commenter · hn ↗Andrey Kolmogorov Soviet mathematician; curriculum curatorTerence Tao Mathematician raised in the WestMagnus Carlsen Chess grandmaster raised in the West
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There’s also the fact that a lot of people in the system simply don’t care. The state can demand whatever it wants and produce whichever program it wants, but despite what they want you to think, they still do not control everything even in the USSR or modern day Russia. I had the displeasure of being part of that system, so I have a lot of…
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I remember a little story from the 70s or 80s about the different approaches taken in America and the USSR toward major engineering challenges:In America, they buy or build a $1 billion supercomputer and hire 5 engineers/programmers.In the USSR, they take an old, eight-story Tsarist-era building in Moscow—with a view of the Neva—and fill it with…
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There are huge regional and district-level differences between schools in the US. The quality and level of my kid's precalc class is on par or better than the one I had in Soviet high school. I am helping a friend's daughter with her math, and the difference between the quality of instruction is staggering.
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