I was unaware of Jim Simons, but really enjoyed his guidance and his commitment to Math education. I have a PhD in EE, with minors in Applied Math and Solid State Electronics. When someone asks about why, I go back to a freshman high school Algebra teacher. I was failing and she said, if you come here every day after school at 3:30, I will teach you. I stayed for 2 hours every day and then had to figure out a way to get home. All of a sudden, the LIGHT went on and everything made sense. From that point on, I was fortunate enough to get another remarkable teacher in my sophomore year and from that point all future math are sense. I asked to take calculus in HS but they would not allow me place. When I got to college, I picked up a calculus book and in about 2 weeks, I was fluent enough to move forward rather well. Mrs. Tribler taught me how to think as did Mr. Lull. Later in my company I taught Fourier Theory and other advanced math to BS, MS and PhD engineers for our advanced tech education classes. Unfortunately, in California, education is so connected to politics and unions, that the students suffer and I hate to think of the bright young people are never taught math and science from qualified teachers. The Jaime Escalante’ story is inspirational, an engineer that went to teaching and the remarkable results. Now that he is gone, you don’t hear about that anymore - so sad.
In Finland they select out teachers, and hire better quality ones, and pay them more. Teachers are about the same level as a medical doctor, there. And it shows. Studies have showed that having a high quality teacher adds the equivalent of about half a year study for the student, for every year they are in school, thanks to high quality teachers. And Finland is in the Top 3 Worldwide, in math and science, for it's kids.
Teachers are well paid in many districts, many over $100,000. It's our culture of forced idiocy , that's the problem. Check any random public school, it's obvious there is no counter balance to it.
I am aware of the Finns emphasis of good education. There is much I admire about the Finnish people, though I have never visited Finland. Google the string "Table Mountain Housing Finance Model". I believe it is compatible with Finnish culture and mindset!
“We’re missing the obvious solution .. that teachers need to be competent in math to improve math education” I’m extremely lucky to be form a district that had some phenomenal teachers, but I agree that most other districts have this problem. Great interview 👍🏼
I agree. I worked as a math substitute teacher in high school algerbra. When I collected all the calculators the students could not do the assignment. I did it without a calculator before class started and it had been more than 20 years since I had done algerbra. Most had no math mechanical skills.
"Math is a language" - as my amazing father told me. Being so fortunate to have a parent as well as dedicated and talented math teachers over the years, I've been given the gift of a lifetime. Now I'm no mathematician, but I'd like to give back. Suggestions?
I am a high school student and I am passionate about mathematics and intend to become a mathematician.You asked suggestions to give back? Let me give you a suggestion.I realized after reading mathematics books published after 1970s or 80s that they are simply bogus.They contain flashy images,have humongous sizes and information in them is quite mediocre so that people should be happy with having them (Not to mentions their 10 to 12 editions LOL).For this reason I always learn mathematics from old books which are usually to the point,black and white with no distracting images and full of some clever and hard mathematics that gives you lots of aha moments.So I would suggest that you should do smething to make high school students more and more aware of these forgotton classics and this can be done by publishing cheap reprints of these classic books.Of course one person alone can't do that but still I think this is one of the most profound ways to make people enjoy the beauty of naked mathematics (in old texts) rather than that mathematics which is covered in hundreds of clothes so students don't enjoy or feel its body. (Modern books with flashy images and stupid clerical exercises and irrelevant things)
My understanding is that teachers in Finland have masters degree in their subject area, i.e. math teachers have a masters degree in mathematics. Thank you Jon Simons.
How mathematics should be more focused on practicality: Mathematics is a subject that is often viewed as dry, abstract, and disconnected from real life. This is in part due to the way it is often taught, with a focus on memorization and solving abstract problems that have little bearing on everyday life. As a result, many students end up hating math and seeing it as a pointless subject. However, mathematics is actually a very practical and useful subject, with applications in a wide range of fields, from science and engineering to finance and economics. By focusing more on the practical applications of math and less on abstract problem-solving, we can help students to see the value and relevance of this subject and to develop a deeper understanding and appreciation of it. One way to make math more practical is to focus on real-world problems and examples. This can help students to see how math is used in everyday life and to develop a sense of purpose and motivation for learning it. For example, instead of assigning students a list of abstract algebra problems, teachers could give them problems that involve calculating the cost of goods, determining the best investment strategy, or solving other real-world problems that require math skills. Another way to make math more practical is to teach it in the context of other subjects.
math is also creativity and beauty. why sell it as "a practical subject". you dont teach art and painting just because you can also paint walls and houses or fences.
Calculating the cost of goods ?? Thats just accounting, I am not sure how you want to teach math that way. The more exciting thing is to come up with a project, say "Modelling ocean currents" and then let the student go and do his/her thing and learn whatever they can
Commendable intentions. All the "solutions" have a universal property in common, to be "tuned" to circumstances, ..and constructive. Policies get stuck "in the wrong gear" for the load in the system, and most of the circumstantial problem is inappropriate languages and long-term attitudes, entrenched in Nomenclatures and teaching-learning practices. All of which hinges on each individual person by person in the particular stage of development, (Piaget type psychological engagement). We have a relatively fixed pattern of the "Pulse of Life" parenting, for which "best practices", (and these are very similar in application to solving/optimizing the Economy/Market rhythms), are individual responsibility. If you see how to make a general improvement and can facilitate it, "every little bit helps". Therefore we totally appreciate Jim's intentions and effective efforts to make improvements to Education in general, globally. If mathematics has evolved from the coordinating cause-effect of natural necessities of navigating a tribe/community around the living environment of planetary systems, then the fully integrated development of techniques and associated applications through historically shifting environments, has to be reiterated, by default, for each of us in the particular context around us. So to sum up, it's always "the best you can do with what you have", whatever you have.
Unfortunately, so many school district leaders think the best way to improve quality of education is giving every kids an ipad, and installing more fancy displays in classroom.
i would (sincerely) love to see math promoted: and speculatively, paying math teachers a 50-100% increase would be great. one can reduce the pay of 70% of the other teachers to compensate for the increases. that is how important is math going forward and how ineffective much of the rest of the curriculum is going forward.
One simple idea that took a man like Jim Simons to say it out loud. I was helping in my son's old school a couple of years ago and was shocked to hear the class teacher convince a group of nine year olds that horizontal is up and down, while vertical is side to side. Oh, and that the number one million has SIX digits. She didn't even know how to teach simple division techniques so simply gave up! OMG, I home-schooled my kid for two years and his high school wonder why he's so ahead?
Those with an aptitude for math and/or science only have to go out and get a hold of the books and sit the exams independently of the schools. Cost to the government and the taxpayer. . . zero dollars. This proposition by Jim Simons is, at best, another example of "don't feed the bears".
Teachers are well paid in many districts, many over $100,000. It's our culture of forced idiocy , that's the problem. Check any random public school, it's obvious there is no counter balance to it.
If only we could irradiate time consuming essay hungry non practical subjects like history, social studies and other shenanigans, kids can devote more time to Math and Science in any average weekday.
Smart guy. My university doesn't even have REAL teachers teaching math, they have grad students teaching to save money. I'm sure Mr. Simons knows this university, he used to be chairman of the math department there.
b0ondockz self education can be an effective solution to many of America's problems. It merely takes discipline. I was intrigued by Complex Analysis. So, I decided to further investigate the the subject as a whole. With a little dedication, I discovered that Complex Analysis has similar properties of real numbers. As you can see, I learned it on my own. I feel like I know it more than a professor at a university. Therefore, self education is key to success.
Most university professors aren’t trained as teachers. Sometimes you get a good one and sometimes you are forced to figure it out. Such is the value of a university Math education.
George Carlin, "(American corporations)They want obedient workers...People who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork, and just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, the reduced benefits, the end of overtime and the vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it, and now they’re coming for your Social Security money." That's why critical thinking skills, math and science arent emphasized in American schools.
I could not agree more with this gentleman - 100% common sense. Education in mathematics needs to be revamped right across the western world , not only in the U.S. There is far too much at stake to leave excellence in mathematics in the hands of Asiatics. Great Kudos to Mr. Simon for all his personal effort on behalf of this VITAL cause. I have always had the uncomfortable feeling that mathematics is intentionally sidelined in order to favor banking and political cartels due to public ignorance.
America has lost its way. Greed and power have eroded our core values. The safety and quality of education for our children has fallen by the wayside. It means nothing to us. We have gone from God Bless America to God Help America.
Jon Simons taught at Harvard and MIT, was chairman at Stony Brook and was awarded 1976 American Mathematics Society Oswald Veblen Prize in Geometry. In 2014, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences of the USA. He was recognized by his peers as an outstanding in his field. The Chern Simons forms he helped develop have found applications in quantum physics.
streamline maths teaching, pointless teaching advance maths to pupils that have no aptitude, get the ones that have some ability and give them special classes and super teachers.
Why are we lower than a lot of other countries? Diversity. Countries that are beating us in the rankings, such as Korea, are mostly the same people. Their share a similar culture, work ethic, education ethic. The US is much more diverse including the way they look at education. Here's another thing that seems to be lost. These States united are not one country but 50 countries. (57 plus 2, if you ask Obama). We are compare individual countries, such as Singapore, against all of our states and all of the school districts that make up every state. In essence, what you get is a diversity of diverse populations being compared to a monolith. If that is not comparing apples to oranges, I do not know what is.
@@AdrienLegendre this is 4 years ago and I still mainly have the same stance, if you don't remember the quadratic equation and where or how to use it, it's memory. I respect Math, but it is what it is
@@champfisk5613 Are you serious? You don't have to remember the "quadratic equation" if you understood that. Children in elementary school can construct it.
@@andrasgezajuhasz2024 not that children can't construct it, but the average person don't know what it is. So yes I'm serious. Also math is memory, if you don't use it you forget it
@@champfisk5613 Have you met mentally disabled children and teachers only? (I'm a teacher.) By the way, the quadratic equations are coded in every newborn's brain in many forms. Your brain solves quadratic equation eg when you throw a ball into a basket or you jump. A teacher has to translate this inbuilded "instinctive knowledge" into math formalism. I don't understand your problem.
There is no Nobel Prize for mathematics. Jon Simons taught at Harvard and MIT, was chairman at Stony Brook and was awarded 1976 American Mathematics Society Oswald Veblen Prize in Geometry. In 2014, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences of the USA. He was recognized by his peers as an outstanding in his field. The Chern Simons forms he helped develop have found applications in quantum physics
I was unaware of Jim Simons, but really enjoyed his guidance and his commitment to Math education. I have a PhD in EE, with minors in Applied Math and Solid State Electronics. When someone asks about why, I go back to a freshman high school Algebra teacher. I was failing and she said, if you come here every day after school at 3:30, I will teach you. I stayed for 2 hours every day and then had to figure out a way to get home. All of a sudden, the LIGHT went on and everything made sense. From that point on, I was fortunate enough to get another remarkable teacher in my sophomore year and from that point all future math are sense. I asked to take calculus in HS but they would not allow me place. When I got to college, I picked up a calculus book and in about 2 weeks, I was fluent enough to move forward rather well. Mrs. Tribler taught me how to think as did Mr. Lull. Later in my company I taught Fourier Theory and other advanced math to BS, MS and PhD engineers for our advanced tech education classes. Unfortunately, in California, education is so connected to politics and unions, that the students suffer and I hate to think of the bright young people are never taught math and science from qualified teachers. The Jaime Escalante’ story is inspirational, an engineer that went to teaching and the remarkable results. Now that he is gone, you don’t hear about that anymore - so sad.
In Finland they select out teachers, and hire better quality ones, and pay them more. Teachers are about the same level as a medical doctor, there. And it shows. Studies have showed that having a high quality teacher adds the equivalent of about half a year study for the student, for every year they are in school, thanks to high quality teachers. And Finland is in the Top 3 Worldwide, in math and science, for it's kids.
Teachers are well paid in many districts, many over $100,000.
It's our culture of forced idiocy , that's the problem. Check any random public school, it's obvious there is no counter balance to it.
@@violent_bebop9687 GOD BLESS YOU
That's great 👍🏻
I am aware of the Finns emphasis of good education. There is much I admire about the Finnish people, though I have never visited Finland. Google the string "Table Mountain Housing Finance Model". I believe it is compatible with Finnish culture and mindset!
50% increase is insane. Imagine the compounded difference over 18 years
“We’re missing the obvious solution .. that teachers need to be competent in math to improve math education” I’m extremely lucky to be form a district that had some phenomenal teachers, but I agree that most other districts have this problem. Great interview 👍🏼
It makes me sad to see people like him aren't running for office. Every country needs top intellectuals at the helm of policy making.
well said
I agree. I worked as a math substitute teacher in high school algerbra. When I collected all the calculators the students could not do the assignment. I did it without a calculator before class started and it had been more than 20 years since I had done algerbra. Most had no math mechanical skills.
"Math is a language" - as my amazing father told me. Being so fortunate to have a parent as well as dedicated and talented math teachers over the years, I've been given the gift of a lifetime. Now I'm no mathematician, but I'd like to give back. Suggestions?
I am a high school student and I am passionate about mathematics and intend to become a mathematician.You asked suggestions to give back? Let me give you a suggestion.I realized after reading mathematics books published after 1970s or 80s that they are simply bogus.They contain flashy images,have humongous sizes and information in them is quite mediocre so that people should be happy with having them (Not to mentions their 10 to 12 editions LOL).For this reason I always learn mathematics from old books which are usually to the point,black and white with no distracting images and full of some clever and hard mathematics that gives you lots of aha moments.So I would suggest that you should do smething to make high school students more and more aware of these forgotton classics and this can be done by publishing cheap reprints of these classic books.Of course one person alone can't do that but still I think this is one of the most profound ways to make people enjoy the beauty of naked mathematics (in old texts) rather than that mathematics which is covered in hundreds of clothes so students don't enjoy or feel its body. (Modern books with flashy images and stupid clerical exercises and irrelevant things)
RIP Jim. You were awesome
My understanding is that teachers in Finland have masters degree in their subject area, i.e. math teachers have a masters degree in mathematics. Thank you Jon Simons.
How mathematics should be more focused on practicality:
Mathematics is a subject that is often viewed as dry, abstract, and disconnected from real life. This is in part due to the way it is often taught, with a focus on memorization and solving abstract problems that have little bearing on everyday life. As a result, many students end up hating math and seeing it as a pointless subject.
However, mathematics is actually a very practical and useful subject, with applications in a wide range of fields, from science and engineering to finance and economics. By focusing more on the practical applications of math and less on abstract problem-solving, we can help students to see the value and relevance of this subject and to develop a deeper understanding and appreciation of it.
One way to make math more practical is to focus on real-world problems and examples. This can help students to see how math is used in everyday life and to develop a sense of purpose and motivation for learning it. For example, instead of assigning students a list of abstract algebra problems, teachers could give them problems that involve calculating the cost of goods, determining the best investment strategy, or solving other real-world problems that require math skills.
Another way to make math more practical is to teach it in the context of other subjects.
math is also creativity and beauty. why sell it as "a practical subject". you dont teach art and painting just because you can also paint walls and houses or fences.
Calculating the cost of goods ?? Thats just accounting, I am not sure how you want to teach math that way. The more exciting thing is to come up with a project, say "Modelling ocean currents" and then let the student go and do his/her thing and learn whatever they can
He has doubled his net worth since this. Stay in school kids, and learn mathematics..
Tripled.
3x
Rip Jim simons
What is the state of this program now?
Commendable intentions.
All the "solutions" have a universal property in common, to be "tuned" to circumstances, ..and constructive.
Policies get stuck "in the wrong gear" for the load in the system, and most of the circumstantial problem is inappropriate languages and long-term attitudes, entrenched in Nomenclatures and teaching-learning practices.
All of which hinges on each individual person by person in the particular stage of development, (Piaget type psychological engagement).
We have a relatively fixed pattern of the "Pulse of Life" parenting, for which "best practices", (and these are very similar in application to solving/optimizing the Economy/Market rhythms), are individual responsibility. If you see how to make a general improvement and can facilitate it, "every little bit helps".
Therefore we totally appreciate Jim's intentions and effective efforts to make improvements to Education in general, globally.
If mathematics has evolved from the coordinating cause-effect of natural necessities of navigating a tribe/community around the living environment of planetary systems, then the fully integrated development of techniques and associated applications through historically shifting environments, has to be reiterated, by default, for each of us in the particular context around us. So to sum up, it's always "the best you can do with what you have", whatever you have.
Unfortunately, so many school district leaders think the best way to improve quality of education is giving every kids an ipad, and installing more fancy displays in classroom.
Immensely intriguing! I believe he made some valid arguments.
sadly, too great of an idea, because of attempts to make every teacher "equal" even if they're not...Love his thoughtful, spot on assessment
i am absolutely agree on what he has said .
What a good man
Well said
i would (sincerely) love to see math promoted: and speculatively, paying math teachers a 50-100% increase would be great. one can reduce the pay of 70% of the other teachers to compensate for the increases. that is how important is math going forward and how ineffective much of the rest of the curriculum is going forward.
One simple idea that took a man like Jim Simons to say it out loud. I was helping in my son's old school a couple of years ago and was shocked to hear the class teacher convince a group of nine year olds that horizontal is up and down, while vertical is side to side. Oh, and that the number one million has SIX digits. She didn't even know how to teach simple division techniques so simply gave up! OMG, I home-schooled my kid for two years and his high school wonder why he's so ahead?
Brilliant!
Those with an aptitude for math and/or science only have to go out and get a hold of the books and sit the exams independently of the schools. Cost to the government and the taxpayer. . . zero dollars. This proposition by Jim Simons is, at best, another example of "don't feed the bears".
Teachers are well paid in many districts, many over $100,000.
It's our culture of forced idiocy , that's the problem. Check any random public school, it's obvious there is no counter balance to it.
*FORCED IDIOCY!!!!*
That's the phenomena in two words. The question is, why is this happening ? Who benefits from this TREASON?
Its not just the poor quality of math teachers...it is also the poor quality of math curriculums in the US.
Jim Simmons is the architect from the matrix confirmed
If only we could irradiate time consuming essay hungry non practical subjects like history, social studies and other shenanigans, kids can devote more time to Math and Science in any average weekday.
I'm from Tamil Nadu. Please educate Americans maths and science and stop brain drain from Tamil Nadu.
Smart guy. My university doesn't even have REAL teachers teaching math, they have grad students teaching to save money. I'm sure Mr. Simons knows this university, he used to be chairman of the math department there.
b0ondockz self education can be an effective solution to many of America's problems. It merely takes discipline. I was intrigued by Complex Analysis. So, I decided to further investigate the the subject as a whole. With a little dedication, I discovered that Complex Analysis has similar properties of real numbers. As you can see, I learned it on my own. I feel like I know it more than a professor at a university. Therefore, self education is key to success.
Most university professors aren’t trained as teachers. Sometimes you get a good one and sometimes you are forced to figure it out. Such is the value of a university Math education.
@@joehudson440 Lmaooooo okaaaaaay. Take it easy rain man
George Carlin, "(American corporations)They want obedient workers...People who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork, and just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, the reduced benefits, the end of overtime and the vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it, and now they’re coming for your Social Security money."
That's why critical thinking skills, math and science arent emphasized in American schools.
I could not agree more with this gentleman - 100% common sense. Education in mathematics needs to be revamped right across the western world , not only in the U.S. There is far too much at stake to leave excellence in mathematics in the hands of Asiatics. Great Kudos to Mr. Simon for all his personal effort on behalf of this VITAL cause. I have always had the uncomfortable feeling that mathematics is intentionally sidelined in order to favor banking and political cartels due to public ignorance.
u know nothing
America has lost its way. Greed and power have eroded our core values. The safety and quality of education for our children has fallen by the wayside. It means nothing to us. We have gone from God Bless America to God Help America.
b0ondockz Stony Brook? really?
Jon Simons taught at Harvard and MIT, was chairman at Stony Brook and was awarded 1976 American Mathematics Society Oswald Veblen Prize in Geometry. In 2014, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences of the USA. He was recognized by his peers as an outstanding in his field. The Chern Simons forms he helped develop have found applications in quantum physics.
streamline maths teaching, pointless teaching advance maths to pupils that have no aptitude, get the ones that have some ability and give them special classes and super teachers.
you're right
Why are we lower than a lot of other countries? Diversity.
Countries that are beating us in the rankings, such as Korea, are mostly the same people. Their share a similar culture, work ethic, education ethic. The US is much more diverse including the way they look at education.
Here's another thing that seems to be lost. These States united are not one country but 50 countries. (57 plus 2, if you ask Obama). We are compare individual countries, such as Singapore, against all of our states and all of the school districts that make up every state. In essence, what you get is a diversity of diverse populations being compared to a monolith.
If that is not comparing apples to oranges, I do not know what is.
우리는 이미 양자불멸입니다.
He will never tell the his formula.
I wonder what the test of f knowledge consists of...keep in mind math is done from Memory
Math is not done by memory. Mathematics is about relationships and ideas.
@@AdrienLegendre this is 4 years ago and I still mainly have the same stance, if you don't remember the quadratic equation and where or how to use it, it's memory. I respect Math, but it is what it is
@@champfisk5613 Are you serious?
You don't have to remember the "quadratic equation" if you understood that. Children in elementary school can construct it.
@@andrasgezajuhasz2024 not that children can't construct it, but the average person don't know what it is. So yes I'm serious. Also math is memory, if you don't use it you forget it
@@champfisk5613 Have you met mentally disabled children and teachers only?
(I'm a teacher.)
By the way, the quadratic equations are coded in every newborn's brain in many forms. Your brain solves quadratic equation eg when you throw a ball into a basket or you jump. A teacher has to translate this inbuilded "instinctive knowledge" into math formalism.
I don't understand your problem.
Did he win any Nobel Price ? If not then probably his talent is useless
There is no Nobel Prize for mathematics. Jon Simons taught at Harvard and MIT, was chairman at Stony Brook and was awarded 1976 American Mathematics Society Oswald Veblen Prize in Geometry. In 2014, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences of the USA. He was recognized by his peers as an outstanding in his field. The Chern Simons forms he helped develop have found applications in quantum physics
🤡 there no noble in maths the closest is fields medal
And ofc he's done a lo for the world through his foundation
What about you ?