Future Students View Points

Grigori Tao

Among the numerous people who have contributed to my success at the International Mathematical Olympiad the first I wish to recognize is Mr. Stanley Xiao, my math teacher from grade 10 to 12.

Mr. Xiao was a very unique mathematics teacher. First, unlike the majority of teachers out there Mr. Xiao is a bonafide ace mathematician whose knowledge and skill level parallels many professional mathematicians. The fact that he chose to be a math teacher attests to his passion and desire to be here. He is a teacher because he wants to be, not because he has to be. In turn his passion for mathematics and his emphasis on excellence affected all in his class. Second, he is the most passionate fan of mathematics competitions. Frequently in class he would talk about various national and international level math competitions, anecdotes about past contestants, how to get there, and how he is willing to train any and all wishing to go down that path. He treats math competitions as seriously as most people do professional sports and that made the mathletes feel very good about themselves. Finally, he constantly challenged the class with difficult problem sets that were for grades that constantly motivated us to think and act like mathematicians. Without him, I would not have had the skill, inspiration, and motivation needed to do well enough on the Canadian Open Math Challenge and subsequently the Canadian Mathematical Olympiad and the USA Mathematical Olympiad to qualify for the International Mathematical Olympiad, much less returning home as a gold medalist.

Indeed, my experiences are not unique. In his 10 years of teaching 4 students that he has taught has returned home as IMO gold medalists, more than the combined total from BC from 1980 (Canada's first year at the IMO) to 2010. I have recommended that Mr. Xiao be part of the IMO training staff in the future to continue his excellent work.

For his inspiration and countless hours of helping us learn to problem solve and challenging us to be the best we can be, I thank him with the utmost sincerity.

Nora Lau

In retrospect of my high school education, it is reminescent of the worst kind of mentality of most major universities: that is, the idea that all chemistry/physics/English/biology/geography/history/...etc. students are to be trained in such a way that they ought to be future researchers in the subject area. The one teacher I had that most underline this mentality is one Mr. Stanley Xiao. In many ways, Mr. Xiao is perhaps objectively an excellent teacher. Indeed, under his tutelage four people (Grigori Tao, Ronald Barton, Jonathan Reid, Bruno Zhai) have went to the International Mathematical Olympiad and returned as medalists. Many more scored extraordinarily high on national and international level math competitions. However, despite his glorious record, his teaching style has isolated at least as many people, including myself. I have never proclaimed to be very strong at math, nor am I very interested in having much to do with mathematics past the immediate need of my field of study (commerce). Mr. Xiao didn't believe in accommodating people of my desires and continuously bombarded us with difficult assignments and tests, forcing us to spend an exorbitant amount of time on our math courses. In the end, much of what we learned was unnecessary. This of course was not restricted to just Mr. Xiao but presents a pandemic among all of academia.