Kiki went back to China. Before she left, she had told me to take our children to attend a test. I did not know where Kiki heard about Kumon. I just heard about it when I was there today. Of course, it did not affect the fact that Kumon has become widely spreaded in the world.
What is Kumon? Kumon is merely a set of Mathematical exercises that a Japanese designed initially for his son to catch up with his class. Then it was developed to cover Readings.
Having learned it is a Japanese thing, I was a little reluctant to take it on. However, I knew I should not judge my children’s personal development by my personal taste. So I held back my initial reaction and analyse Kumon impartially.
Among online reviews of Kumon, no one says it is creative learning/teaching method. Most reviews are neutral, as it makes up the insufficient homework from English schools. Someone even says Kumon is diving students in exercises, not a new thing in China. Teacher in Kumon played little functions. He/she just gives out papers and hires a few university students to assist in the class to mark the answers. Most time Kumon relies on parents or guardians to supervise their children to take the exercises at home.
If we were in China, I would not use Kumon, definitely. But we are in the UK, where Kumon might be useful. I am not keen in Kumon’s massive amount of exercises, but the following 3 key points.
My children are not lack of learning materials. But these materials are not linked together, thus not systematic. If Kumon can systematically arrange the learning materials, it worth the money.
Kumon claims to teach children self learning skills and foster their interest in learning. A lot of teaching organisations advertise the same words, so here I put a question mark. I will be more than glad to see if Kumon lives up to it.
In English schools, teachers are fixed to a grade and do not upgrade with their students, so no one can be responsible for the long term development of the students; students meet new teachers every year, and it always takes a while for them to settle down. Teacher in Kumon can follow up students in a long term. Normally only one teacher in a Kumon centre, so if he/she does not follow up, who else can? During the test this afternoon, I saw my children got on with this teacher quite well.
It is said many times that Chinese schools give the best basic education, and no one in western countries can compete. I thought so until recently. When I was curious about what was being taught in English A-Level Further Mathematics courses, I was surprised to find out it was talking about the optimal routing for a postman. I only had the similar lessons of Operations Research after Further Mathematics in my university.
It is a bit off topic. I mean – Do not use mindset to judge an education model. Whether a model is good or not depends on the individual.
I decide to send my children to Kumon to try it out. My only prerequisite is they must learn in a happy mode. I will never tolerate spending money in “Kumen” – a homophonic of Kumon in Chinese which means tough and boring.