Greetings, my friends!
Today I met with a friend of mine whose son is finishing high school and needs to make a choice which high school he would like to attend in order to get into a major university in the future.
Her boy is very able because he enjoys studying. He studies geography and history independently in depth. He dreams of being an aircraft pilot, the only thing is that if he wants to go to university in Milan, his parents have to be prepared to pay 40 thousand euro a year. It takes 5 years to go to university and, of course, to pay 200 thousand euro for 5 years is an enormous amount. And parents do not have such opportunities.
Therefore the task at the moment is to choose the right lyceum, because a lyceum in Italy is an institution that prepares students for university. Which actually corresponds to Russian colleges. Where children receive basic knowledge in specialised subjects, and after college it is of course much easier to go to university, because students already know the subjects they are studying.
Children aged 6-10 go to Materna school, which corresponds to our pre-school and primary education. Children aged 11-14 go to Media school, which corresponds to the Russian middle classes. After high school, Italian students can finish their education and go to work. This was the case until recently, because four years ago the Italian government passed a law on compulsory secondary education. So now many Italians in their 40s and 50s are again required to go back tonight schools to get a high school diploma in a year and present it to their employer, otherwise the employer has no right to have employees who do not have a high school diploma.
Today, my husband and I found out what level of math our students and Italian students are studying. We concluded that Russian schools give a mathematics program that our students study for 10 years, here 13 years.
In our universities, regardless of the focus of the university, be it humanities or technical university, it also required us to study the basics of higher mathematics and probability theory. Their students never studied that if they went to a liberal arts department.
Sometimes I hear our people say how unimportant mathematics is as much as we studied it in school. I have a completely different opinion. Because I really liked math, even though I didn't go to a special school. And also because, having delved into the educational system in America and Europe, I see that universities are more willing to accept international students who know mathematics very well. It is easier for such students to get into university because they can write a math test and get a high score.
Recently I came across an article by American statists (I wish I had saved it in my bookmarks), where scientists studied the question, "Why do Americans have difficulty making responsible decisions in everyday life?" Their answer convinced me that mathematics is very important to people.
The answer from scientists is that learning mathematics creates the logical thinking that helps people make responsible decisions in their lives.
We Russians don't run to a psychologist for advice in every difficult situation, while Americans do it in everyday life. We are better prepared for crisis situations than they are. And it turns out, according to scientists, this has to do with the study of mathematics.
Math was my favorite subject in school. At university, I studied higher mathematics and probability theory, mathematical analysis in economics. I am sure that mathematics helps me to keep my mind clear and my thinking logical!
What do you think?
Math is one of my favorite subjects :)
its nice, i like Math too.