"Over the last few years, in the course of many parent conferences
and elementary-school curriculum nights, I’ve become familiar
with the
concept of the “just-right book.” This, my children’s
teachers
patiently explain, is a book that is perfectly suited to a child’s
reading ability: neither too easy, in which case he or she will grow
bored, nor too difficult, which risks frustration and confusion.
— jackiemac, Jamestown, NY
(Recommended by 1 Reader)
EIGHTH QUOTE:
“At [math summer] camp following his first year [as a student at Leningrad University], [Grisha] Perelman served as an instructor to a remarkable group of mathematicians two years younger than he… Every morning Perelman gave them a set of twenty problems—roughly double the club’s usual semi-weekly dose. The problems were extremely difficult, and the level of difficulty was increased with little regard for the students’ actual abilities and achievements. The general concept was always that the carrot should be hanging just barely above the level to which the rabbit could jump. But Grisha believed that the rabbit should always be jumping higher and higher. A student who failed to solve at least half of the problems by midday was told he or she could not have lunch.”
(From Perfect Rigor, by Masha Gessen, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston/New York 2009, pp. 96-7)
NINTH QUOTE:Ein Schulmeister hat lieber zehn notorische Esel als ein Genie in seiner Klasse, und genau betrachtet hat er ja recht, denn seine Aufgabe ist es nicht, extravagante Geister heranzubilden, sondern gute Lateiner, Rechner und Biedermänner. Wer aber mehr und Schwereres vom anderen leidet, der Lehrer vom Knaben oder umgekehrt, wer von beiden mehr Tyrann, mehr Quälgeist is, und wer von beiden es ist, der dem anderen Teile seiner Seele und seines Lebens verdirbt und schändet, das kann man nicht untersuchen, ohne bitter zu werden.
(From Unterm Rad, by Hermann Hesse, Suhrkamp ed. 1975)