Jiang Ping, a 17-year-old secondary school student, stood out under the "surrounding" of high-achieving students from prestigious schools and became the biggest hit in the past few days.
In the preliminaries of the 2024 Alibaba Global Mathematics Competition, Jiang Ping, who studied at Lianshui Secondary Vocational School, scored 93 points, ranking 12th in the world.
As a result, she became the first secondary school student to reach the final since the Ali Mathematics Competition was held, and became the only female player to break into the top 30 in the world.
Most of the finalists with her are from Tsinghua University, Peking University, Oxford, Stanford and other well-known universities, Jiang Ping relied on her knowledge and ability to achieve a counterattack in life.
Her stand out can be said to be a combination of talent, hard work and love, and at the same time, it also fulfills the old saying that opportunities are reserved for those who are prepared.
Congratulations! Many netizens also sent their admiration and blessings, hoping that she would achieve greater achievements on the track of mathematics.
Of course, the seed of this Internet hotspot has also attracted the attention of many "speculators". When Jiang Ping was preparing for the finals, they lost no time in using this incident as a tool to "fight cattle across the mountains".
A very clear point is to complain about the attack on the mainland's college entrance examination education and enrollment system, in order to vent the resentment of the college entrance examination failure that year.
Does the appearance of Jiang Ping mean that many talents have been buried?
Jiang Ping's success has indeed attracted a lot of attention, and at the same time, some self-media have used it to question and attack China's education and college entrance examination system.
Some people believe that the presence of a specialist like Jiang Ping in a secondary school is a sign that something is wrong with China's education system, which focuses too much on grades and exams, and ignores students' interests and personality development, resulting in some talented students not being fully developed.
This view has existed for a long time, but it has become more turbulent and noisy after Jiang Ping appeared. It is true that in terms of the overall improvement of national education and the development of students' personalities, the college entrance examination system is indeed unable to be exhaustive, and there are flaws.
However, the college entrance examination system is facing tens of millions of candidates every year, and the number of people participating in the college entrance examination this year has exceeded 13 million.
Of course, for students who are particularly excellent and outstanding in a certain aspect, there will also be extra points for admission, or in the form of a strong foundation plan, guaranteed admission to prestigious schools, comprehensive evaluation admission, etc., which is to take into account the candidate's personality and strengths.
Even so, in the face of such a huge number of candidates, it is not a difficult question of whether it is difficult or not to achieve in-depth investigation and clear placement of everyone, but an impossible thing.
Jiang Ping may have had her own talent and love before this, but it was only after entering Lianshui Secondary Vocational School that she gradually got better under the guidance of mathematics teacher Wang Yanqiu.
If, as the "hindsight" said, Jiang Ping admitted her to a well-known university before her mathematical talent and achievements appeared, do you think they would say that there is no fairness at all?
Jiang Ping is lucky, and thanks to her hard work and love in mathematics, she seized this opportunity to stand out. This just shows a problem, even if you are a secondary school student, even if you fail the college entrance examination, as long as you work hard to seize the opportunity, you can also achieve self-realization.
Moreover, most of the many contestants who entered the finals together this time are not from major prestigious schools, but they are outstanding students who have taken the college entrance examination and have been selected to enter prestigious schools!
Jiang Ping's efforts are admirable, and her success is worthy of congratulations and gratification, but it cannot negate the excellence and hard work of other famous school players.
Does Zhejiang University's statement show that Chinese universities don't love talents?
After Jiang Ping exploded on the Internet, many colleges and universities posted on Weibo to congratulate her and welcome her to apply for the exam, which also shows that major universities have noticed Jiang Ping's talent and achievements.
This situation also made many people immediately think of the "exceptional admission" problem that they had dreamed of, and some media made a big fuss about it.
First, a media reporter threw out the topic of "exceptional admission", thinking that among the colleges and universities that congratulated Jiang Ping, they maintained a cautious attitude towards "exceptional admission" to Jiang Ping.
In particular, after Jiang Ping said that her ideal goal was Zhejiang University, a media reporter called the admissions office of Zhejiang University, and when he heard the staff say, "The situation related to exceptional admission involves corresponding procedures and cannot be answered for the time being", so he immediately concluded that Zhejiang University does not pay enough attention to professionals like Jiang Ping, and the online comment area is full of complaints.
This kind of reporter is generally not afraid of big things, and at the moment when the incident has just happened, how can he give you a positive answer if he asks an ordinary staff member of a university to express his stance on such a serious issue.
Moreover, the "exceptional admission" itself is often accompanied by various special circumstances, even if Zhejiang University wants to take Jiang Ping into its arms, it also needs a careful investigation, and a simple Alibaba's test score cannot be the ticket to the unconditional "exceptional admission".
If "exceptional admission" is so simple and fast, and it can be casually defined as a special and excellent professional without in-depth research and careful investigation, it is not rigorous and unfair to most candidates.
This kind of topic operation is basically to provoke the public's emotional thinking with its own cognitive defects, which is not only not beneficial to Jiang Ping, but also to the society's evaluation of education and enrollment system.
"Exceptional admission" is not uncommon in the form of college admissions, and many colleges and universities in China have "exceptional admission" under specific conditions, especially for candidates with "outstanding performance in related fields", one of which is the performance of "winning awards in high-level competitions".
However, of course, exceptional admission is not casual, and for Zhejiang University, it is not something that an admissions office staff can determine, and the evaluation of the so-called "high-level competition awards" also requires a rigorous and meticulous process.
If this process is not rigorous and meticulous, and if it is not included in the scope of institutionalization and proceduralization, it will be easy to do special things, but it will lead to possible adverse consequences, and it will also be unfair to other candidates who study hard.
Therefore, there is nothing wrong with the answer of the admissions office staff of Zhejiang University, and I believe that Zhejiang University will also study and investigate the exceptional admission of Jiang Ping, but this also requires a procedure.
Can a video of a Harvard "former employee" really get Jiang Ping into Harvard?
Most of the appeals for "exceptional admission" are well-intentioned, and they also hope that Jiang Ping can get a better space for further study in China.
However, this has triggered a turn of hype from many self-media and netizens, and some people have complained that domestic universities do not cherish talents, and there has been a wave of "praising foreign countries" on the issue of education.
They think that famous foreign universities are more suitable for Jiang Ping's growth and development, and they complain about domestic colleges and universities, and even say that if Jiang Ping stays in China, it will be buried!
In particular, He, who claimed to be the former Harvard University Ken School Admissions Committee, posted a video on social platforms saying that he "has already talked to the Harvard Alumni Association and Harvard undergraduate interviewers", and wanted to talk to Jiang Ping, hoping that Jiang Ping would contact him.
He also said in his comment area that someone had already helped to match, and he had discussed it with Harvard alumni, "The girl only cares about excellence, and we will figure out how to deal with the cost." ”
Just because of this video that cannot be verified on the Internet, many netizens jumped up excitedly, believing that Harvard University extended an olive branch to Jiang Ping, and even encouraged Jiang Ping to go to foreign universities, complaining that domestic universities could not train high-end professionals.
The methods and ideas of cultivating talents in famous foreign universities may be worthy of affirmation and reference, and it is of course a good thing if Jiang Ping can go to a world-famous university for further study. However, relying only on this video of foreign netizens to entrust a mathematics expert is a bit irresponsible.
Even if the video is true, He is only a former employee of Harvard, and does not represent the official opinion of Harvard University in any way, and what he said about "greetings" with relevant people at Harvard University is just a "greeting" without certainty.
Speaking of the Harvard Alumni Association mentioned by He, I can't help but think of Dr. Sun Moumou, who was popular in the United States for a while last year, when he was on the street and exploded on the Internet, a group of so-called alumni association members swore an oath, but once the popularity passed and enough traffic, Dr. Sun still resumed his life on the streets of the United States.
I would like to explore a question here, will those people in the so-called "alumni association" of famous schools really do so much to cultivate talents for the motherland? Are you really comfortable handing over a rising math star to them?
Even if Harvard will really extend an olive branch to Jiang Ping in the future, there is no need to engage in this set of praising foreign talents, domestic colleges and universities love talents and cherish talents, otherwise so many outstanding professionals can obtain the qualification of escorting famous schools every year, and the strong foundation plan of each famous school is also in the selection of outstanding talents.
According to the relevant regulations, if Jiang Ping's household registration and physical condition meet the requirements for the college entrance examination, then when she graduates from secondary school, she will also have the qualifications to register for the Jiangsu general college entrance examination, and it is not an extravagant hope to enter the ideal university.
Jiang Ping also has the opportunity to participate in the "Strong Foundation Program" to be admitted to prestigious schools and enter the mathematics major of her favorite university for further study. Of course, she also needs to meet the basic comprehensive quality conditions, which may also be a challenge for Jiang Ping.
True talents are never afraid of hard work and challenges. At the same time, it is hoped that domestic colleges and universities will fully consider the advantages of talents in the cultivation of talents, and give more space in terms of qualifications!