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Have you ever wondered why you often hear about Hungarian inventors and Nobel prize winners? 

The secret is in how young minds are shaped. The above video is a brief introduction how the  the brilliant scientist were chiseled in Fasor Lutheran High School by the same teacher. 

• The Fasori Evangélikus Gimnázium: Many attended the same elite high school in Budapest that focused on intense mathematics and creative problem-solving. Their teacher, László Rátz presented the problem first, which created motivation which further let the students to arrive to a solution vs. in schools today the teachers show the method first then a solution.  This method was asynchronous problem-solving. 
• Interdisciplinary Thinking: They combined physics, math, and chemistry instead of sticking to just one subject.
• Constant Debate: They learned through aggressive, non-stop intellectual arguments with each other at cafes and labs.
• Thought Experiments: They used deep imagination and mental simulations to grasp complex physics.
• And there was competition. Students published their solutions from all over the country in a legendary Hungarian high school mathematics and physics monthy journal called KöMaL which first appeared first in 1893 and still in circulation today. FYI It is common practice, even in elementary grades students, to participate in math competitions in Hungary

  What a difference a teacher makes! Mr. Rátz was superb and miraculous, according to Wigner. He built kind relationships with students, imparted the very deepest understanding.
  
  The Method of Discovery (Inductive Education): He did not teach the little boy rules, rather placed real datasets into their hands. For example, one occasion they had to analyze state railway timetables or national wheat production statistics. Von Neumann had to deduce the rules and mathematical theorems himself from this raw data, even before reading them in the textbook. 
  
  This is the exact methodology transformed Albert Szentgyörgyi, another Nobel Prize scientist, who isolated vitamin C, first. He was a poor student in (a different) high school until a summer job in a lab changed everything. Confronted with a real, tangible problem to solve, his curiosity ignited. Suddenly , he had a definitive goal, a driving purpose which became the ultimate motivation to learn. 

At the early 1900s was the time  for reformed teaching, when time was still not rushed and the process of thinking was valued rather than just memorizing.  Even today, leaning the basics well matters more, having a good foundation that allows to jump much farther in later school years.

He Treated students as a Colleagues: When they sat down in the afternoons at Rátz’s apartment, the teacher did not dictate. Instead, he would pose a difficult question, and then, over two cups of coffee (or tea), they would begin debating together in front of the blackboard as if they were two university researchers.

Interested? Peruse a bit and start this technique yourself. In the meantime, pick up some vocabulary below. 

Photo: Magyar kémikusok lapja