@UCBerkeley econ PhD. Won @PKU1898 teaching award. Fighting against fuzzy Reform Math that stultifies global children & imperils civilizations. ** https://nitter.cf/t.co/qV4sa2JPl2
California
Joined July 2013
- Tweets7K
- Following3.3K
- Followers2K
- Likes12K
Michael Xu, a star teacher now volunteering in East Palo Alto, spends his summer not teaching math, but desperately unteaching it.
Years of schooling have convinced these rising sixth graders that “not making sense is normal.”
His story lays bare how the U.S. math education crisis starts — and takes root — in elementary school.
1/20
Most people only know Jaime Escalante from Stand and Deliver.
Few know there was a Chinese immigrant teacher who did something just as extraordinary:
For 20 years in the Arizona desert, he took the state’s poorest Indigenous, Latino, and Black middle schoolers — many with broken English and shattered foundations — and turned them into statewide champions.
His name is Michael Xu.
The “Sage from the East.”
A man who survived China’s Cultural Revolution, hard labor in the jungle, lifelong dyslexia, and insomnia… yet became a legendary math teacher.
This thread is the first time his full story is being told.
And it reveals something much bigger than one teacher’s success.
Norm’s opinions resonate so strongly with me that I ended up highlighting almost the entire article.
Had Jaime Escalante taught only “relevant, real-world math,” Sergio Valdez would never have risen to become a lead engineer on NASA’s 2021 Mars Mission.
The NASA JPL engineer, a Garfield High graduate, attributes much of his success to the demanding instruction of Jaime Escalante — the iconic teacher from Stand and Deliver.
It is disgusting how math reformers relentlessly dumb down students by deceiving the public with seductive rhetoric, all while destroying the rigorous foundation needed for true achievement.
“Making math relatable” really means limiting students to basic math for daily living — a classic case of the soft bigotry of low expectations.
While reformers pushed “real-world relevance” and group activities, Michael Xu inspired his disadvantaged students with something profound: the intrinsic beauty and power of mathematics — the “heavenly eye” through which humans perceive the universe.
He succeeded brilliantly.
nitter.cf/FightFuzzyMath/status/…
1/20
Most people only know Jaime Escalante from Stand and Deliver.
Few know there was a Chinese immigrant teacher who did something just as extraordinary:
For 20 years in the Arizona desert, he took the state’s poorest Indigenous, Latino, and Black middle schoolers — many with broken English and shattered foundations — and turned them into statewide champions.
His name is Michael Xu.
The “Sage from the East.”
A man who survived China’s Cultural Revolution, hard labor in the jungle, lifelong dyslexia, and insomnia… yet became a legendary math teacher.
This thread is the first time his full story is being told.
And it reveals something much bigger than one teacher’s success.
Why can’t so many American college freshmen handle fractions or solve basic equations?
In this thread, I trace the problem back more than a century — revealing how generations of progressive education policies have systematically weakened mathematics education in the U.S.
You’ll also meet a remarkable Chinese math teacher who turned his disadvantaged students into outstanding math achievers.
nitter.cf/FightFuzzyMath/status/…
1/20
Most people only know Jaime Escalante from Stand and Deliver.
Few know there was a Chinese immigrant teacher who did something just as extraordinary:
For 20 years in the Arizona desert, he took the state’s poorest Indigenous, Latino, and Black middle schoolers — many with broken English and shattered foundations — and turned them into statewide champions.
His name is Michael Xu.
The “Sage from the East.”
A man who survived China’s Cultural Revolution, hard labor in the jungle, lifelong dyslexia, and insomnia… yet became a legendary math teacher.
This thread is the first time his full story is being told.
And it reveals something much bigger than one teacher’s success.
When American students are fed these deficient, low-rigor textbooks year after year, what results should we expect?
Are progressive educators not deliberately dumbing down the next generation of Americans?
