A new advanced training facility, TechProtege, meets President Obama’s challenge “to dramatically improve achievement in math and science” by teaching kids and adults essential high-tech math skills at rocket speed.
“Our schools continue to trail other developed countries and, in some cases, developing countries,” President Obama said recently at the National Academy of Sciences. “I’m challenging states to dramatically improve achievement in math and science. America’s young people will rise to the challenge if given the opportunity.”
At virtually unheard of speeds, TechProtege teaches math from the basics all the way through AP college calculus in just weeks, not years, and in just a few hours per week.
This quantum leap in math education was developed by Dan Steinberg, whose math exam and competition scores were consistently in the 99.9th percentile. Bodybuilding and swimming gave him additional insight into training systems, as did an MBA degree in Operations and a Six Sigma Black Belt certification. A Bachelor’s in Physics and Certificate in Telecommunications Engineering round out his technical skills.
“Math is really just common sense,” Dan said. “Traditional schools and state bureaucracies make things seem complicated. They tell you that you need to be in 11th grade Honors to learn Trig, but anyone who has ever seen a wheel go around can understand sine and cosine. It’s pretty simple and doesn’t take a lot of effort.”
Sometimes new students doubt themselves, though. “I tell them it’s like riding a bike,” Dan said. “You remember your first time on a bike. It wobbled a lot, and maybe you even fell once or twice. But once you got the feel of it, you rode straight and fast ever since. Math is the same.”
Students who are 10, or 110, can learn math through college calculus this summer easily at TechProtege.

Ms. Robbins is a freelance writer and an advertising executive for the “Tolucan Times.” She can be reached at arobbins@tolucantimes.com.