We get a lot of different kind of e-mail response to our book: some friendly, some antagonistic, some curious, etc etc etc. This one, which came the other day, may be one of my all-time favorites:
Hello. I am Rohan Patel, I am 10 years old. Your book was amazing! I loved it, but I found one mistake in it. In the chapter “What Makes A Perfect Parent?” it says that changing schools does not have an impact on the child. This is untrue, as i moved from Canada to India. In India the school system is much harder, when I came here I was way behind. I am emailing my friends and they are behind me, what they learn is very different from what I learn. So changing schools makes a huge impact on the child, I myself am an example of this.
sincerely,
rohan
19 Comments
That fanmail is, in a word, awesome.
— Emrys[...] From the Freakonomics blog: Hello. I am Rohan Patel, I am 10 years old. Your book was amazing! I loved it, but I found one mistake in it. In the chapter “What Makes A Perfect Parent?” it says that changing schools does not have an impact on the child. This is untrue, as i moved from Canada to India. In India the school system is much harder, when I came here I was way behind. I am emailing my friends and they are behind me, what they learn is very different from what I learn. So changing schools makes a huge impact on the child, I myself am an example of this. [...]
— Donklephant » Blog Archive » Comparing The Canadian School System To India’s[...] A young Indian boy who read Freakonomics writes to the books authors, Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, with a suggestion for a correction to the book. [...]
— DesiPundit » Comparing schoolsHi,
I enjoyed your book a lot. I also ran into another exciting book, China’s global reach: markets, multinationals, and globalization by a Chinese thinker george zhibin gu. It is really powerful. I recommend it to you both.
— heavencatOutsourcing to India Low-end Only? Think Again …
Anybody who still thinks that “outsourcing to India” is and will remain the domain only of low-end services, needs to read this letter written to Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner by a ten year old boy, posted…
— Adventure of Strategy[...] The Freakonomics blog has an interesting letter from a 10 year old in India. Hello. I am Rohan Patel, I am 10 years old. Your book was amazing! I loved it, but I found one mistake in it. In the chapter “What Makes A Perfect Parent?” it says that changing schools does not have an impact on the child. This is untrue, as i moved from Canada to India. In India the school system is much harder, when I came here I was way behind. I am emailing my friends and they are behind me, what they learn is very different from what I learn. So changing schools makes a huge impact on the child, I myself am an example of this. [...]
— India’s schools trump Canada’s? at yazadjal.comWhat was your response to Rohan?
— umichgradI wish all ten year old US students could from an opinion and express it that well.
— ZakI wish all ten-year-olds in my country could read and write…
— GPRohan,
I’m 13 years old–just a tad older than you. I too have moved overseas from America to Europe. There is a difference in school systems (I found the European schools easier).
However, I believe that Freakonomics was examining switching schools in the United States. The U.S. school system is generally consistent from place to place.
— xianUmichgrad (post 7 above) wanted to know my response to Rohan. Here it is: “rohan,
— Stephen J. Dubnerwell, according to the data, changing schools *didn’t* affect their test scores. but yes, i would imagine that as drastic a move as yours would surely shake things up. i wish you all the best of luck in your new school. sjd
Perhaps the US can outsource child education to India? It would be better and cheaper than the current public schools. You could call the program “No Child Left Behind,They Are All In India”?
— stuartFor a 10yr old to read and enjoy Freakonomics and be behind his peers… that is pretty ridiculous.
— penxv[...] While I’m at it, I’ll let a bloggy smile turn into a good laugh (as long as I don’t tip my chair back too far and end up on the floor). [...]
— Notes from the Basement » BaskingA Condemnation of Canadian Education
I know the Canadian Education system is not terrific is many ways, but is it really this bad? From the Freakonomics blog:
— EclectEconHello. I am Rohan Patel, I am 10 year…
A case example in Freakonomics seemed problematic to me. What can be gained, in terms of understanding parental effects, by comparing a sane person with bad parents (Fryer) to a mentally ill person with good parents (The Unabomber). This isn’t at all a controlled comparison. Perhaps the parenting helped, but the mental illness acted as the dominant effect.
— sdsanderThis is specially for “stuart” above.
— amitrajitIn some ways US education have been outsourced to India. Indian tutors are now teching US students Maths, Science and English. Check out this story http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=13919140
[...] http://www.freakonomics.com/blog/2006/03/21/a-reader-writes [...]
— tripleR » LinksNice little letter. being an Indian in India, I’d like to say that there is a large amount of pressure on kids at high school level to do well. Kids aged 12-14 are suffering anxiety- related disorders because of this.
— Dr Puneet Madhok