Israeli kids can't do math either

ahem!

Barry just alerted me to the fact that this review (and post) sound anti-semitic.

They're not!

This review appeared in Haaretz, which is the most prominent newspaper in Israel. This is an Israeli economist talking about the same stuff we talk about here, the miserable state of math ed in the schools.


from a review of Ron Aharoni's Arithmetic for Parents:

Once a year, Israelis wake up in the morning, open their newspapers, read reports about surveys comparing the level of knowledge in mathematics of our genius children with that of children from countries, which we more or less respect, and discover to our horror that we are slipping badly. Israeli kids, we sadly conclude, are just not all they are cracked up to be.

Since the level of knowledge in mathematics is customarily linked with intellectual prowess in general, the myth of Jewish genius suffers a massive blow. Since mathematics is customarily considered the "queen" of the sciences, serious doubts are raised as to whether the Jewish People of Zion can truly build a Temple of Academia and Science to which the nations of the world will flock. And since the quality of our human resources and technological progress are vital for the maintenance of our edge over those nations that are bent on destroying us, our very survival is threatened.

Reading this, I find myself shockingly not sorry about the fact that Israeli kids can't do math, either. Misery loves company.

Now if we can just do something about those Singapore kids.

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see also:
What I Learned in Elementary School by Ron Aharoni
American Educator article by Ron Aharoni (ktm-1)
Ron Aharoni on teaching fractions (ktm-1)
Ron Aharoni on the fifth operation of arithmetic (ktm-1)
Ron Aharoni on reform math in Israel (ktm-1)