There is a lot of rote in Asia, and an over emphasis on classic geometric proofs that have little relevance in today’s world. Yes, we should try as hard as Asia in math, but blindly copying Indian or Chinese education practices isn’t the right way forward.

The goal of learning should be mastery, not memorization of specific cases.

With geometry, the style I was taught emphasized explanation of complex problems using proofs but building from first principles.

You are almost guaranteed never to have to another Euclidean geometric proof again after you take the gaokao. It’s like the LeetCode for chinese college admissions.

(Shrug) It depends on what you "master." Mastering symbolic integration isn't going to do much for your career or your country's industrial prospects. Life is short, and there are too many more-useful things to learn.

Well, with the current state of mathematics in the US education system... blindly following Asia is a step up.

I do agree with you that in theory we can do better than asia, but that is too high of a milestone given that we are basically currently significantly worse than Asia on all fronts.

NCLB was as disastrous as throwing away phonics.

Adopting elements of the Finnish model would probably be an improvement.