| > Most high-school students grinding for the national Olympiads are doing it to get into top universities later [...] Alternative view, based on personal experience - not intending to over-generalize: 1. They love maths. The subject is beautiful to them. The reasoning involved makes sense. They enjoy knowing how things work. They take pleasure in seeing how the reasoning comes together. 2. Their minds are like sponges. They are bored with school. They easily surpass their colleagues, even the relatively strong ones. It is difficult to find any challenge related to coursework (which is a major minus). Any class where there is a reason to learn something deeper or more complicated is a joy. Their interests frequently become very broad because there is no depth available. 3. Competition is interesting, but I think it is primarily because of #2. --- Are there kids who "grind for glory"? Sure. I've known those, too. The people I have described above are the ones who stand out, though. I do agree that presenting a use for complex thinking is a good thing. I actually think that creating larger programming projects is an excellent introduction to a kind of managing complexity that is challenging (and world-expanding) for many people. It's not exactly the same as competition maths, but it's not in a different world, either. |