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You mentioned Kumon, and I felt a cold chill go up my spine from a long lost, forgotten childhood trauma. <nod/> I was good at math, but my mother ran a Kumon
by hallmark 17y ago
You mentioned Kumon, and I felt a cold chill go up my spine from a long lost, forgotten childhood trauma. <nod/>
I was good at math, but my mother ran a Kumon center as her small business, and I had to do Kumon so that she could use me as an example. I felt sorry for those kids. In the end, I think the repetition method helped a lot of the students. But the style is so different from the American educational system that, from the perspective of someone who did fine in public school, the Kumon method just felt.. dirty. Like corporal punishment.
- patio11 17y agoMy sister worked at Kumon for a while. For those folks here who don't know, they're a Japanese juku (cram school) which expanded to America mostly to service the children of Japanese parents abroad. (A common fear is that a student who spends a few years in an American public school prior to returning to Japan will be academically crippled.) I have only two things to say about mathematics education in Japan: it works very well for students in the academic track, and it isn't considered strange to have girls say they like it. So the next time you hear someone saying how we need to address gender balance, there is your answer: soul crushing drills!
- silentOpen 17y agoI think culture might be a confounding variable...