- When Akihiko Takahashi arrived in America, he was surprised to find how rarely teachers discussed their teaching methods. A year after he got to Chicago, he went to a one-day conference of teachers and mathematicians and was perplexed by the fact that the gathering occurred only twice a year. In Japan, meetings between math-education professors and teachers happened as a matter of course, even before the new American ideas arrived. More distressing to Takahashi was that American teachers had almost no opportunities to watch one another teach.
In Japan, teachers had always depended on jugyokenkyu, which translates literally as “lesson study,” a set of practices that Japanese teachers use to hone their craft. A teacher first plans lessons, then teaches in front of an audience of students and other teachers along with at least one university observer. Then the observers talk with the teacher about what has just taken place. Each public lesson poses a hypothesis, a new idea about how to help children learn. And each discussion offers a chance to determine whether it worked. Without jugyokenkyu, it was no wonder the American teachers’ work fell short of the model set by their best thinkers. Without jugyokenyku, Takahashi never would have learned to teach at all. Neither, certainly, would the rest of Japan’s teachers.
I notice this too with my students (introductory programming class). I suppose it feels a lot better to explain doing poorly as "I'm not naturally good at this" instead of "I haven't tried hard enough to wrap my mind around this". That said, I do think some subjects are more difficult for some people than for others, and the way schooling is set up now doesn't really offer people the option of taking longer to understand something (aside from failing and retaking classes, which isn't fun or good for keeping scholarships).
Quick summary: I went to a "good" high school. It was the only high school in an "exemplary" (or whatever) school district that attracted families from everywhere, and there was a huge growth rate. Because of my mom, I took a lot of the more difficult classes, and entered college with something like 15 credit hours. Still never really had to do much homework in high school though. Still a winner. College attempt #1 was pretty bad. Made it through the first couple of years, but when upper-level undergrad physics happened, I blew it. Went back to live with my parents, worked my engineering internship, and enrolled in a not-as-challenging university, still a state school though. You can probably guess which one. College attempt #2 was pretty good. Only took me 2 more years, finished with a 3.49 gpa, learned a lot, kept working the internship, got my girl, graduated, got the job. Still, I already knew I had major knowledge gaps due to a couple terrible professors. The job was mentally engaging, but not in the way I had intended. Wasn't doing enough pure mathematics on a daily basis, and work continued for almost four years. One of the scientists I worked for eventually said "dude, go to grad school", and got me into a very challenging program. Grad school has been the biggest slap in the face that I've ever felt in my entire life. The depth and breadth of the mathematics required for weekly homework assignments is way more than I bargained for. Taking four years off already put me at a disadvantage, and now I'm competing in a grade distribution with kids who have already seen a lot of the content that I never learned in my inferior undergrad (and high school) experience. Many of them were educated with private tutors in high school and went to private undergrad universities. None of this makes me feel any less stupid, don't worry. Goddamn, I'm stupid. Maybe some people have a bit more mathematical intelligence than others, but lm is right. Math skillz are largely a matter of effort. And I gotta go put in more time right fucking now. Edit: also yeah, I didn't learn plotting functions until 7th grade. like y = m*x + b. Until 7th grade. C'mon guys, don't make me homeschool the babies that I don't even want to have.
This is dangerous. Raising a child unprepared for independent living - which comes from learning to sustain yourself after miltitudes of failures in no least measure - only benefits the parent or the authority figures willing to manipulate the child, and even then - in the short run. To whom are they going to leave the country once they kick the bucket (an inevitable outcome, no matter how undesirable)? How are the Americans dealing with it? Is there a counter-movement to this madness?