thanks very very much for your time and your observation and for your bringing up the subject and for your initiating the discussions. your article must be very interesting to some, but unfortunately not to me. coz i already knew all you said here, when i was a 15-year old child in zhejiang province of china. and i have to say, your article is on the level of surface, not on the level of the underneath.


the biggest problem in education (of the whole world, including USA of course) is:

the educational system, which is a super important being, is not managed by some most talented persons who have unbeatable soundness and deepness of analytical thinking.



typically, the most qualified people to manage education are doing something else, either with bigger money, or with bigger technical challenges which can satisfy them in a great deal when they defeat the challenges.



such persons typically must have been exposed to a large quantities of subjects in hard sciences, especially calculus and probablity.



If you never ever learned probability, then forget about it. you are disqualified.
because, probablity demands some sort of proper thinking very very very useful in social sciences.



calculus ever shocked the former president Jiang Zemin of china. and, when i came across to calculus for the first time, i was shocked too. if you don't have such experience, then that's a big pity, and that's one evidence that something wrongk in world's educational system.


why do i mention calculus? because that's one of best examples of such phenomena: while people in technical world can understand the highest-level research articles in non-technical world, people in non-technical world do not know even the rudimentally basic subject of the technical world.



with such kind of non-technical people in charge of the social sciences, which is SCIENCE by definition, and with such kind of people who are not able to think analytically (back and forth in particular), the education gets into a BIG trouble.



coz, educational system is a SYSTEM, by defintion it's very very very complicated. you might know the complexity of economic system, which attracted a bunch of talented mathematicians to work on it. so, see, i am saying, education demands most capable people to manage.



recently i am extremely busy with my scientific research, so i couldn't give a systematic analysis of world's education at this point of time. what i can do here is to show-boat some of new ideas/thinking which i believe you probably never ever heard/thought of.



1. the best educational system in the world probably is, the system in france. definitely not china's, and definietly not usa's.


if you deduce usa has the best educational system from the fact that usa is the most powerful nation in the world in scientifc and social studies, then this is a PERFECT example that you are damn short of analytical thinking.



2. if doing properly, statistically speaking a mathematican will be most capable in 30s, a physist or a computer scientist or a surgeon will be most capable in 40s, and an engineer or politician will be most capable in 50s.

do you know such thing? probaly not, i guess. and why do i mention it? because, it relates how to educate such professionals.


3. when people get old, which kind of intelligence dimish fater? do you know that? probaly not, i guess. and why do i mention it? because, please look at the next item.



4. there is a critism, china's education does not weight on how to use hands; and there is a praise, that USA weight on that kind of stuff.

and i would like to tell you: as a matter of fact, china's approach is more scientific!

because, as people get old, thay can continue to develop their hand-doing intelligence up to 70 years old!

but, the most powerful logical thinking happens at age of 20!!!

so, you have to educate a kid on that kind of such, before she/he get old.

see, i have connected this item to item 2 and item 3.



5. do you understand the concept of "iteration"? if you don't, that's another perfect example of that you are damn short of analytical thinking.

iteration, is particularly common in large complicated systems. you should not try to improve half of the system a lot, but leave the other half intacted. you should do by iterations: improve a little bit here, then go the second spot and improve a little bit, ..., and come back the first place and improve a little bit, ..., so on so forth.

why i mention iteration? because, the current all educational system in the world, except france's, are trying to solve something completely, then send kids into colleges at age of 18.

and, this is a staggering waste of talents!!!


because, some non-intelligence-demanding and interesting stuff can be learned when they get tired in hard-core learning in colleges and graduate schools; and some intelligence sucking subjects should be done before they get old!!

so, a kid should starts elemtary study at age of 5, and finish pre-college stuff at age of 14. during their 9 years learning, they should not learn a subject too deep. rather, they should stop at some shallow level and go after the next sugject. doing too deep on those subjects in high schools, is like climb too far on a lower brach of a tree. yes, you may reach the tip of that brach, but it's a low brach! the good stuff in on the tip of a higher brach of the tree. so, don't go too far!



6. so, kids should finish those stuff by age of 14, in a quick and dirty way. however, they are too young to leave their parents and go to college.

another issue, the current world's educational system, make a judement that some kids are smarter than others before they are tested on real stuff. do you know what i am saying?

i am saying, often it happen some retarded kids go to harvard, some talents go to miserable schools. it puzzels me for long time, how can they tell those do well on those stupidly simple problems are smarter?

to solve both problems, to kill two stones with one bird, the world need 3-year pre-college education. during that period, they learn subjects much closer to future subjects in term of content and difficulty level. then, after three years, not only they learn real subjects, but also they make up something could have learned in the current system (which solve something all during 12 years education, and then never leran them anymore in the future). and, based on their precollege performance, it will be much much more reliable to judge who is smarter to access better professors, so that the limited resources of the society can be better allocated.



7. you mention the benefit of freedom and interest development in USA's educational system, against china's pressurized education. then i have three points for this issue. point 1 and 2 are here, point 3 is in the next item.

USA's this freedom-and-interest-opted education is a good-for-elite system. those who want to learn learn damn hard (you have to know a fact, americans are most hard working people in the world, they work around the clock!!!) after their 9am-3pm, and they become elites; those who want to play do nothing after 9am-3pm, and they become retardedness. such a good-for-elite system is one reason that you see so many stupid people goofing around, and you are praising this sytem without reseravation? yes, USA is the most powerful nation in the world in scientific and industrial things, but, its educational system might be the worst in world (though, actually not, US's system is OK). can you understand such a logic? if not, that's another perfect example that you are damn short of analytical thinking.

point 2, the freedom-and-interest-opted education will be very hard to educate elites among elites who are capable to cope with the most chllenging technical difficulties. because, those who never ever take pain will simply run away when they face something really really difficult.

only those who ever suffered could possibly beat.



8. yes, freedom-and-intetest-opted system in US has merits, and china's all-wheat education lacks diversity. so, china should completely adopt US's sytem, right?

are not you too simple minded?

let me show you some connections:

to be able to let kids to learn whatever they like and give them freedom, they must be free of the college entrance pressure. do you know what's the percentage of china's kids studying at college? 80%? 50?...

in year 2000, 5% of 19-year old chinese kids are studying at college, i am sure. and currently i guess the figure should be somewhere close to 20%

what's the percentage in US?


to have chinese kids study freely on what they want, you must allow them to apply for multiple schools at the same time, and allow them to transfer freely.

the current fact: both are practically impossible for a large pecentage of chinese kids. why? have you thought about this?

the answer is: china don't have sufficient amount of people who own enough houses or spaces to lend to students! this is the ultimate reason behind! please think about it why.

so, it's all about resources. and for the exactly the same reason, the resouces, attract most hard working & most greedy people around the world to affimilate to USA. USA is powerful and will be powerful because of its super fat resources, not because its system --- and this why the US sold to other nations such as africans never work.


ok, i'm tired and have to take a break. but i am sure you have impressed by how a great (and arrogant) scientist think very different from the rest of world.


creativity has been implanted in my bone since my childhood