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Consider Supplemental Math Programs as Holiday Gifts |
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From EurekAlert! - Breaking News: Parents of school-aged children might want to think of giving their children an enduring holiday gift this year: enrollment in a supplemental mathematics program. While it can cost anywhere from $80 to $110 a month, the results of practicing mathematics nearly daily is rewarding to both students and parents. Many home-school practitioners use the first two, and Kumon, which involves daily practice and some tutoring, is popular with parents who feel their schools might be letting them down. Dan Kimura, Ph.D., a senior professor of computer science and engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, opened St. Louis' first Kumon center in 1984, in large part because of his disappointment in the math education that his sons were getting. Begun in Kimura's hometown Moriguchi, Japan in 1958 by the late Toru Kumon, a math teacher who invented it to help his sons, Kumon math has more than 4 million students enrolled worldwide in 43 countries, nearly 180,000 in the United States. Students begin at a comfortable learning level, having been tested to determine that level, working with paper and pencil on series of calculations devised to reinforce what they learn; they master a learning phase at their own pace, pass a timed test and go onto another level. Kimura said the reason that many parents are seeking supplemental help for their children in mathematics is the American method of teaching and the contents taught. "The Kumon method is based on training, and is a top-down approach that stresses achieving goals," he said.
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