Kumon Math and Reading Center of Bellevue – Downtown

I’m writing in response to the nanny who posted below, to help clarify some of her misconceptions. I have been a Kumon instructor for almost 7 years, (at a different location). Prior to Kumon, my background was in teaching high school.
Yes, it’s true that most kids hate doing Kumon. Most kids hate doing anything that involves work or thinking, especially if their friends don’t have to do it. If you go back and ask most adults who did the Kumon program as children, many will tell you that yes, they hated it, but it was the «best thing their parents ever did for them»; especially those that were in the program for many years. Many students struggle in high school and college with math (and still finger-​count to add and subtract); Kumon students typically breeze through their classes.
There is a misconception that Kumon is all about rote memorization and repetition and not full understanding, which isn’t true. Yes, repetition is part of the program. Kumon is an EXERCISE program for your brain. You get better at things, whether it be golf, playing piano, running, etc. – by practicing. And yes, you need to do things more than once in order to get really, really, good at them. Math is no exception. If a child isn’t grasping multiplication, the instructor will have the child practice multiplication until they do understand it and get really good at it before moving them on to division. They will practice division until they get really good at it before doing fractions. It makes math really simple and easy to understand when it is progressive. We do want them to try to do the exercises quickly so that as they move through the program they will be able to get through the upper level material in a reasonable time without it taking hours and hours to complete.
They are not forced to do all the math in their heads. We encourage them in the lower levels of the program not to write excessive scratch work when unnecessary, because it will make the assignments go much faster and make the subsequent levels easier. If the child trains him or herself to add the extra «one» in their head instead of writing it every single time, it will make it easier later on to add fractions, which are written horizontally. When they are doing more complex processes, they do need to write the intermediate steps. Occasionally I do have some kids that have difficulty with this, and they are allowed to write out the carries or borrows to keep track.
There are several reasons we ask parents not to help or teach their children at home. Kumon is a self-​learning program, where we develop our students to be able to teach themselves through studying the examples – and yes, they get really, really good at it. If they aren’t understanding the examples, the instructor will work as a guide to help the student. In almost seven years, I have rarely had to sit down and explicitly explain something to a student. I would say that roughly 60% of the kids figure out the examples without assistance. The rest of them may need some guidance (usually 3 – 10 seconds of quick guidance and asking questions helps them figure it out). Some need a little; others need a lot. I find that maybe one out of every 2 – 300 kids needs me to actually ‘show’ them. They designed the worksheets to be very self-​explanatory. When parents start over-​teaching their kids’ Kumon at home, we find that many teach their kids the incorrect way (or more difficult way) of solving something and we have to go back and undo it. I had a student once who took 1 ½ hours to complete 3 pages because after she learned division at Kumon her mom «re-​taught» her the long way to do it – when I went back and had her do it the «Kumon way» she did the same 3 pages in 15 minutes and it was much easier for her. Also, kids who get outside help become EXTREMELY dependent upon it – no one is going to be holding their hand through school. I find that the kids that are in our classes who are struggling, needy, and dependent are usually the ones that are getting too much help outside of class. If I don’t take your training wheels off, are you ever going to be able to ride a bike on your own? =) I’ve had students here for 5 years that have never needed to ask a question. If a student is having difficulty, I want them to alert me in class – not ask their parents. It helps me know what kinds of questions they have so I can better lesson plan for them. Students who learn to study our examples well are able to progress into the higher level math easily and finish the program; those who get too much help end up dropping out once their parents are no longer able to help them. Most of our students get ahead of grade level end up in accelerated programs at school, honors classes, skip grades, or are the top of their math class. I’ve watched hundreds of kids go through this program and reach a higher potential – that’s a great program in my book. =)