The American way is to drill the kids with an algorithm and then hand them 20 more problems that are solved with the same algorithm, no insight required.
Kids in the West come out with a fear of failure. Good problems in Western pedagogy are the German style ones, where kids struggle for a bit and then get it, to "build confidence."
Kids in the (Soviet-era) East come out understanding there are problems which are easy to solve, hard to solve, and impossible to solve, and you'll face all three in school and in life. You won't know which one you've got until you've tried.
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>If you do it right, you'll incorporate these into everyday life (walk down the street, see something that you can turn into a similar problem, then pose that to the kid).
So you agree, this is how to get kids to love math IF you do it right?
No. This is how you encourage kids who already love math. If they're not interested (yet), this is an awesome way to turn them off.
If you do it right, you'll incorporate these into everyday life (walk down the street, see something that you can turn into a similar problem, then pose that to the kid).
Source: loved these as a kid[1], now parent who wants to encourage a healthy sense of wonder in math/sciences.
[1] Here's one for you I loved back in the day: A hen and a half lay an egg and a half in a day and a half. How many eggs do six hens lay in six days?