Date: Fri 24-Apr-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: SUZANN

Quick Words:

Kumon-Learning-Center-mastery

Full Text:

A Learning Center Where Mastery Still Matters

(with cut)

BY SUZANNA NYBERG

With classrooms in Monroe and Trumbull, the Kumon Learning Center offers

individually tailored reading and math programs to children from pre-school

through high school. To appreciate Kumon's methodology, it is helpful to know

some of the contemporary trends in education the center does not subscribe to:

Learning has more to do with process than with mastery. Peter Elbow, an

English professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, summarizes

these ideas. An advocate of "freewriting," "loop-writing," and "open-ended

writing," Prof Elbow does not object to students writing nonsense so long as

they write.

Rules are not important to this methodology. John S. Mayer, a professor at New

York University, argues against teaching rules and grammar in a rhetoric

class. Grammar continues to be taught, he writes, "because of the mistaken

belief that grammatical choices in writing ought to be a matter of conscious

control." Or as William Coles, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh and

self-styled expert in composition theory, puts it: "Many of us know various

rules -- for the use of the comma, even perhaps for constructing a

paragraph... And many of us know that such knowledge is useless beyond a

point. Or that it may sometimes get in the way."

The same ideas apply to reading. For example, instead of writing a critical

analysis of literary allusions in poetry, Prof Mayer advocates having the

student describe what the poem means to him and what effect it has on his

psyche. Personal writing takes precedence over academic writing because

students master substance through personal involvement, not impersonal

analysis, he argues.

A Lack Of Skill

The problem with these ideas, increasingly skeptical parents have discovered,

is that students do not have the skills to take drafts and work them into

literate pieces. Unsure of when the Depression was or who wrote David

Copperfield, these students lack fixed reference points and a cultural context

from which they can operate. They can't even add and subtract basic sums.

The Kumon Learning Center offers an altogether different model for higher

education. Taking issue with these approaches, owner Theresa Finnegan believes

that standards are more than just a matter of perspective. Skills come first.

Drills are practice, not exercises in torture. "A pencil and paper and one's

brain are important," she said. "There is nothing wrong with practicing."

There is also nothing wrong with learning a quantity of things by rote, even

if the effort is slow.

Mrs Finnegan offers a phonetic approach to reading, where students decode

words by sound instead of trying to read by sight. She also asks students to

read aloud to show that they understand the written word. "Halting pauses

between words indicate a lack of comprehension," she said. If students merely

read the words, which they tend to do if they are taught to read by sight,

they will miss the sentence's idea.

Mrs Finnegan also has students read what by any standards are classics: The

Wind in the Willows, The Call of the Wild, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

Those students at higher levels are then called upon to develop arguments

about these works. Mrs Finnegan believes that expression depends on knowing

the structure of language. Creativity alone does not build words into

paragraphs.

Cultivating Discipline

Students at the center cultivate discipline, a lack of which, Mrs Finnegan

believes, warps a youngster's life. "We require children to work each evening,

and we believe in sequential learning," said the former mechanical engineer.

To that end, students master one lesson before beginning another.

Mrs Finnegan lives by her words. Her seven-year-old daughter, Amanda, can

already do triple digit division. Mrs Finnegan says that it is not uncommon

for students at the center to proceed well beyond their grade level; she is

currently teaching a sixth-grade boy who now does ninth-grade math.

Mrs Finnegan is especially critical of "new math," a widely-used technique

that encourages critical thinking and problem solving instead of drills. "It's

akin to teaching music theory before a child understands the scales," she

said. Noting that children won't be able to solve problems if they don't know

the times tables, she questioned the logic of less traditional approaches. She

also predicts change.

"California is legislating to get rid of the new math," she said. "As they go,

so will the rest of the country. Unfortunately, it will take 15 years to make

it back to the East Coast."

Referring to American students' low-test ranking throughout the world, she

believes that parents could receive a better return on their educational tax

dollars. "But they can't change the system, so they're seeking other avenues,"

she said.

As the main instructor in the center, Mrs Finnegan works with more than 120

students in half hour sessions. At an average age of 11, many children will

work with her for up to three years. Most children study both reading and math

at the center and they can come in any time the center is open.

Mrs Finnegan asks of her students only mastery. Without mastery, the value of

years spent in the classroom remains in doubt and students without skills will

be heavily handicapped in the next century.