If NCLB and RTTT and their emphasis on high stakes testing (and all the brain-dead teaching that requires) is motivated by China's dominance on math and science tests, then why doesn't China have a single Nobel Prize winner in any of those areas?
6 comments:
MichaelD
said...
Well, the main reason there isn't a prize winner in mathematics from China is because there is no Nobel Prize in mathematics. But the article gave a few of the biggest reasons. China churns out people who are really good at math and science, but not at original thinking. So they won't be on the front edge of any research, but they will be competent at sciences. Meanwhile, in the US, we have a few people who do a good job of thinking about problems that no one has thought about, but the majority of students are not up to snuff.
Main article: List of Chinese Nobel laureates Liu Xiaobo, Peace, 2010 Ei'ichi Negishi*, Chemistry, 2010 Charles K. Kao, Physics, 2009 Gao Xingjian*, Literature, 2000 Daniel C. Tsui, Physics, 1998 Edmond H. Fischer*, Medicine/Physiology, 1992 Tenzin Gyatso (The 14th Dalai Lama), Peace, 1989 Chen Ning Yang, Physics, 1957 Walter Houser Brattain*, Physics, 1956
"A few people who do a good job . . ." I think is fair. In fact, I think we are losing those few people because NCLB and RTTT, by forcing all to take core classes, is drubbing the love for specific disciplines out of students. Instead, I posit allowing students who have an interest or talent to dive in and excel in the areas that choose. Don't force everyone to meet minimum skill level requirements.
The article mentions - Nine ethnic Chinese have previously won Nobel Prizes, including Yang in 1957 for his work on subatomic particles. But none of them are Chinese nationals, and, with one exception, their groundbreaking work was done outside China, reinforcing a sense of failure among many Chinese.
The government has disowned other Nobels associated with China. It excoriated the awarding of the Peace Prize in 1989 to the Dalai Lama, the exiled leader of China-controlled Tibet. It disavowed author Gao Xingjian, who left China for France in the 1980s to escape censorship, when he won the Literature Prize in 2000. This year it has pressured the Norwegian Nobel Committee to try to dissuade it from giving the Peace Prize to imprisoned democracy campaigner Liu Xiaobo.
There is another curious observation about "country attibution" with the Nobel. Those listed under the Peoples' Republic of China may have done their most "creative" work in the United States; however, several Chinese who are listed under the United States winners studied, for most of their youth, in China.
It seems to me that what WE need to do in the U.S. is "strike a balance" in order to have the requisite, basic knowledge and use it in creative ways...
6 comments:
Well, the main reason there isn't a prize winner in mathematics from China is because there is no Nobel Prize in mathematics. But the article gave a few of the biggest reasons. China churns out people who are really good at math and science, but not at original thinking. So they won't be on the front edge of any research, but they will be competent at sciences. Meanwhile, in the US, we have a few people who do a good job of thinking about problems that no one has thought about, but the majority of students are not up to snuff.
People's Republic of China
Main article: List of Chinese Nobel laureates
Liu Xiaobo, Peace, 2010
Ei'ichi Negishi*, Chemistry, 2010
Charles K. Kao, Physics, 2009
Gao Xingjian*, Literature, 2000
Daniel C. Tsui, Physics, 1998
Edmond H. Fischer*, Medicine/Physiology, 1992
Tenzin Gyatso (The 14th Dalai Lama), Peace, 1989
Chen Ning Yang, Physics, 1957
Walter Houser Brattain*, Physics, 1956
Thanks Michael.
"A few people who do a good job . . ." I think is fair. In fact, I think we are losing those few people because NCLB and RTTT, by forcing all to take core classes, is drubbing the love for specific disciplines out of students. Instead, I posit allowing students who have an interest or talent to dive in and excel in the areas that choose. Don't force everyone to meet minimum skill level requirements.
Thanks for the feedback.
The article mentions -
Nine ethnic Chinese have previously won Nobel Prizes, including Yang in 1957 for his work on subatomic particles. But none of them are Chinese nationals, and, with one exception, their groundbreaking work was done outside China, reinforcing a sense of failure among many Chinese.
The government has disowned other Nobels associated with China. It excoriated the awarding of the Peace Prize in 1989 to the Dalai Lama, the exiled leader of China-controlled Tibet. It disavowed author Gao Xingjian, who left China for France in the 1980s to escape censorship, when he won the Literature Prize in 2000. This year it has pressured the Norwegian Nobel Committee to try to dissuade it from giving the Peace Prize to imprisoned democracy campaigner Liu Xiaobo.
... and this would certain support your thinking:
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1998/tsui-autobio.html
There is another curious observation about "country attibution" with the Nobel. Those listed under the Peoples' Republic of China may have done their most "creative" work in the United States; however, several Chinese who are listed under the United States winners studied, for most of their youth, in China.
It seems to me that what WE need to do in the U.S. is "strike a balance" in order to have the requisite, basic knowledge and use it in creative ways...
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