This interesting article submitted here on HN is one I have often recommended to other readers, so I'm glad to see it on HN's main page. It's particularly interesting to read the comments here, mostly largely agreeing with Tao, as I am currently at Epsilon Camp,
the most advanced mathematics summer program for YOUNG learners in North America, and the parents of the campers here are all pondering the issue of their children's mathematical development. Plainly, at any given age, some young people are more advanced in their mathematical development than many of their age mates, but it is still to be seen how steadily and consistently the mathematical development of the most advanced young learners can be developed if optimal practices are applied to their education.
Based on this published writing by Tao and various writings by other mathematicians, the Epsilon Camp program provides FAQ pages for parents,
who in many cases are not themselves mathematicians, to serve as food for thought as precocious young mathematics learners are growing up. One of the issues for many of the parents from various parts of the United States is simply finding a flexible local school. Another issue, which the meetings of the parents at the camp has helped to handle, is sustaining friendship relationships among those most advanced young mathematics-learners as they disperse around the country at the end of the summer program. On the whole, the parents participating in the program have great buy-in to Tao's idea that whatever initial dose of "talent" or "native ability" a child starts with, careful and intentional guidance of the child's whole-child development is still very important for the child to have the best enjoyment of advanced study of mathematics and the best success in making a new contribution to human knowledge as an adult, in whatever domain the child chooses.
By the way, everyone on Hacker News might enjoy looking at Tao's comments on a blog post that reached the Hacker News page yesterday,
in which we can see Tao thinking out loud in blog comments about what the blog post really means. This kind of careful, step-by-step thinking is something that every mathematician needs to develop sooner or later.
http://epsiloncamp.org/
the most advanced mathematics summer program for YOUNG learners in North America, and the parents of the campers here are all pondering the issue of their children's mathematical development. Plainly, at any given age, some young people are more advanced in their mathematical development than many of their age mates, but it is still to be seen how steadily and consistently the mathematical development of the most advanced young learners can be developed if optimal practices are applied to their education.
Based on this published writing by Tao and various writings by other mathematicians, the Epsilon Camp program provides FAQ pages for parents,
http://epsiloncamp.org/FAQ.php
who in many cases are not themselves mathematicians, to serve as food for thought as precocious young mathematics learners are growing up. One of the issues for many of the parents from various parts of the United States is simply finding a flexible local school. Another issue, which the meetings of the parents at the camp has helped to handle, is sustaining friendship relationships among those most advanced young mathematics-learners as they disperse around the country at the end of the summer program. On the whole, the parents participating in the program have great buy-in to Tao's idea that whatever initial dose of "talent" or "native ability" a child starts with, careful and intentional guidance of the child's whole-child development is still very important for the child to have the best enjoyment of advanced study of mathematics and the best success in making a new contribution to human knowledge as an adult, in whatever domain the child chooses.
By the way, everyone on Hacker News might enjoy looking at Tao's comments on a blog post that reached the Hacker News page yesterday,
http://rjlipton.wordpress.com/2012/08/09/a-new-way-to-solve-...
in which we can see Tao thinking out loud in blog comments about what the blog post really means. This kind of careful, step-by-step thinking is something that every mathematician needs to develop sooner or later.