What a twist! 'Soviet' mathematics is gaining popularity

'Russian mathematics' is conquering America: why parents in the U.S. are paying for the Soviet method Extracurricular classes based on 'Russian mathematics' programs are gaining popularity in the U.S. This trend has caught the attention of Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, and The Boston Globe. In regular American schools, the teaching methodology is based on John Saxon's approach, which emphasizes gradual mastery of algorithms and constant repetition. At the same time, the 'Russian' approach, inherited from Soviet schools, focuses on depth and understanding: children are taught to comprehend why and how a solution works, rather than just memorizing a rule. One of the main players in this market is the RSM school, founded in 1997 by immigrants from Minsk and Chernihiv, Inessa Rifkin and Irina Khavinson. They started with home lessons near Boston, and today they educate 80,000 students in North America. The online project RMT, created by former Silicon Valley programmer Alexander Kolchinsky, has also gained popularity, where tasks are adapted to American realities, as reported by RTVI US. Education is paid — from $900 to $4,086 per year at RSM and about $200 for a course of 10 lessons at RMT, but, as noted by WSJ and The Boston Globe, parents are willing to pay out of fear that their children will fall behind and not get into college.