Far it be for me to argue with Gelfand, but, having done some extensive tutoring, I think that sometimes the best way to “turn these peculiarities into advantages” is to direct the student to a more suitable career path. Face it, some people just naturally suck at math. Sure, they can be drilled to do well on high-school math exams, with many times the effort an average student spends on it (that’s what Kumon is great at, drills upon more drills with a gradual progress toward System I-level mastery). But this is a waste of time and effort for everyone involved. Their time and effort is more productively spent on creative writing, dancing, debating or whatever else these “peculiarities” hint at. Math is no exception, of course, it gets all the attention as a hard course because of the unreasonably high requirements relative to other subjects.
I think you’re right about the very general form of the quote. However, it still might be worth at least some teachers’ time to look at how peculiarities might be advantages.
I’m never sure what to do with these kind of rationality quotes. On the one hand, they are obviously literally false, but on the other hand, they may be pushing against our biases in the right direction.
--Israel Gelfand, found here
Far it be for me to argue with Gelfand, but, having done some extensive tutoring, I think that sometimes the best way to “turn these peculiarities into advantages” is to direct the student to a more suitable career path. Face it, some people just naturally suck at math. Sure, they can be drilled to do well on high-school math exams, with many times the effort an average student spends on it (that’s what Kumon is great at, drills upon more drills with a gradual progress toward System I-level mastery). But this is a waste of time and effort for everyone involved. Their time and effort is more productively spent on creative writing, dancing, debating or whatever else these “peculiarities” hint at. Math is no exception, of course, it gets all the attention as a hard course because of the unreasonably high requirements relative to other subjects.
I think you’re right about the very general form of the quote. However, it still might be worth at least some teachers’ time to look at how peculiarities might be advantages.
I’m never sure what to do with these kind of rationality quotes. On the one hand, they are obviously literally false, but on the other hand, they may be pushing against our biases in the right direction.
I’d say the obvious thing to do is comment to that effect. So far as karma is concerned, I have no strong opinion.