My personal experience is very very different, and is why I "quip these are too hard."
I explain below, but since Singapore was mentioned, I need to ask a cultural question first:
What do parents and teachers from outside the US do when a child DOESN'T understand math? How is math taught so that kids don't end up crying, getting sick, or hating themselves when faced with math problems? Or is there selection bias: it does happen, but "those kids" are left behind, and never seen by the rest of the world?
My personal experience with kids and math:
I'm in the US, and have one child who repeatedly could not complete math work during school, and would bawl and protest how stupid they were when given math homework at home. Completing it would take hours. Far behind, they could not multiply at age 8 or do fractions at 11. Tutors couldn't cover in an hour what other students finish in 10 minutes. Yet doctors indicated there's no learning disability.
So this leads to my perspective: a prodigious child may certainly be capable of these and enjoy the challenge. But for some others, this may succeed in making them feel worse about themselves, because it's yet another example math they don't understand.
I explain below, but since Singapore was mentioned, I need to ask a cultural question first:
What do parents and teachers from outside the US do when a child DOESN'T understand math? How is math taught so that kids don't end up crying, getting sick, or hating themselves when faced with math problems? Or is there selection bias: it does happen, but "those kids" are left behind, and never seen by the rest of the world?
My personal experience with kids and math:
I'm in the US, and have one child who repeatedly could not complete math work during school, and would bawl and protest how stupid they were when given math homework at home. Completing it would take hours. Far behind, they could not multiply at age 8 or do fractions at 11. Tutors couldn't cover in an hour what other students finish in 10 minutes. Yet doctors indicated there's no learning disability.
So this leads to my perspective: a prodigious child may certainly be capable of these and enjoy the challenge. But for some others, this may succeed in making them feel worse about themselves, because it's yet another example math they don't understand.