A high school teacher didn't expect a solution when she set a 2,000-year-old Pythagorean Theorem problem in front of her students. Then Calcea Johnson and Ne'Kiya Jackson stepped up to the challenge.
Half the time in these stories it comes out the parents/relatives/friends happen to actually be experts in the field and work at some high level place where the teens in question just happened to have access to cutting edge resources and ‘guidance’.
They already went to a cutting edge private school that has a 100% graduation rate. I could see what you mean if it was just one student, but these kids were working independently. The school is the common thread.
What you say might be true if it were an easy accomplishment for an adult. Like those kids who are 10 years old with 2 businesses. Then you find out that their parents have 5 businesses. What are the chances that two students independently have outstanding mathematicians as parents?
Not only that, but they also explained their proofs. Watch the video. It’s not a “kid with a boring online business” story.
And they only got $500 for it. Not quite on the level of the Fields Medal… although apparently even that’s only $15,000 CAD (not sure why Wikipedia tells me the amount in Canadian money, but whatever).
Whether that’s true or not, the article transcript explains why this is still a big deal:
Bill Whitaker: Why do you think so many people found what you did to be so impressive?
Ne’Kiya Jackson: Probably because we’re African American, one. And we’re also women. So I think-- oh, and our age. Of course our ages probably played a big part.
Half the time in these stories it comes out the parents/relatives/friends happen to actually be experts in the field and work at some high level place where the teens in question just happened to have access to cutting edge resources and ‘guidance’.
They already went to a cutting edge private school that has a 100% graduation rate. I could see what you mean if it was just one student, but these kids were working independently. The school is the common thread.
What you say might be true if it were an easy accomplishment for an adult. Like those kids who are 10 years old with 2 businesses. Then you find out that their parents have 5 businesses. What are the chances that two students independently have outstanding mathematicians as parents?
Not only that, but they also explained their proofs. Watch the video. It’s not a “kid with a boring online business” story.
And they only got $500 for it. Not quite on the level of the Fields Medal… although apparently even that’s only $15,000 CAD (not sure why Wikipedia tells me the amount in Canadian money, but whatever).
Whether that’s true or not, the article transcript explains why this is still a big deal: