A famous company's leader believes there's only one way to know if you truly understand a subject: Can you explain it to a child? But the man with lifelong love of math recently found it didn't always go well when he tried explaining mathematical concepts(概念)to his then-school-aged children.
He thinks that learning with kids to see what's puzzling to them and what's easy for them are the final test of whether you know a topic—whether you can explain it.
Teachers often ask students to give a statement on a subject to show that they understand it. Studies show that people are more likely to remember and understand concepts they've learned after explaining them to someone else or even to themselves. That means you can testyour own knowledge in a subject simply by trying to teach it to a friendto see both how much information you've kept and how well you actually understand its concepts. If they successfully learn from you, it's a good sign that you're on the right track.
The leader, who studied math and computer science at university, noted that while hewas personally good at math as a high school student, he had trouble passing that enthusiasm(热情)to his three kids.
He loves doing math, but in the past his younger daughter would always say that he made it so complicated (复杂的) and he didn't need to explain this to her. Because she just wanted to know the answer.
Today, his three children are all in their 20s. While they may not have enjoyed the math lessons, he says that one of his favorite things is teaching calculus(微积分)to the kids. There are a few very difficult concepts in calculus. He must explain why calculus is so important and why calculus has those funny symbols. It's crazy and it's probably the thing he enjoys the most.
