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Title: Every Child an Achiever: A Parent's Guide to the Kumon Method by David Russell ISBN: 1-881267-09-1 Publisher: Intercultural Group Pub. Date: October, 1993 Format: Paperback List Price(USD): $12.95

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Average Customer Rating: 2.09 (11 reviews)

Rating: 1
Summary: Case Against Kumon
Comment: Critics of Kumon schools say they address the wrong issues. "They assume the problem in the United States is a lack of pencil-and-paper computational skills," says David Afton, a member of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). In reality, he says, "American students perform quite well on basic skills. Where we fall down is on reasoning and problem-solving tasks."

Kumon's heavy reliance on repetition is another sticking point with its detractors. "It's appropriate at a certain point for particular children," says Herbert Ginsburg, professor of psychology and education at Teachers College, Columbia University in New York City. "But if you do not give them the basic understanding to go along with the drill, the drill becomes meaningless."

Math teacher Noriyuki Inoue, now a Ph.D. candidate in education at Columbia University, compares the Kumon method to SAT preparatory classes: "It's highly effective for getting high scores on standardized tests," says Inoue, "but students will probably see that getting a higher score is a better reward than understanding the principles and the pattern--and this is a major drawback."

BTW: I just heard that in late 2003 the Chairperson of Kumon in Japan, Hiroshi Kumon, has resigned for health reasons. I learned that he was a chain-smoker. What a bad example he set for children who undergo the Kumon program.

Rating: 1
Summary: Kumon supports role of Japanese in World War II!
Comment: Let me share with you the official stance of Kumon (a Japanese conglomerate) regarding Japan's active role in World War II. In the words of Masumi Takahashi, president of Kumon Philippines:

"'People don't follow until you serve as a model, teach them, let them do and praise them.' These are the words of Mr. Isoroku Yamamoto (1884-1943), a Japanese Admiral during World War II.
"This saying is still loved by many people in Japan as their motto in daily life...
"Admiral Yamamoto's maxim...can also apply to the Kumon method.
"Admiral Yamamoto commanded the Combined Fleet before the outbreak of the Pacific War during its first sixteen months...when called upon by his country, Yamamoto planned the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor and then led the Japanese navy to its early victories in World War II. When the U.S. decoded a Japanese message in 1943 that included Admiral Yamamoto's itinerary, they ambushed his plane in the South Pacific and killed him.
"Whenever I see thick clouds through our office window, I imagine the day he was shot in that plane in the South Pacific, as I opened the Kumon Hawaii office in December 1991, exactly 50 years after the Pearl Harbor attack, and I was born in Niigata Prefecture, where Yamamoto was born, too."

These statements were published in the July 2002 issue of EVOLUTION (Philippine edition), the official newsletter of Kumon. Let's expose Mr. Takahashi's paradoxical view. Idolizing Yamamoto, he quotes the admiral about teaching by setting examples. But Yamamoto was the villan who planned the Pearl Harbor attack -- an event now remembered as "a great infamy"! It seems that Mr. Takahashi admires Yamamoto as a hero or role model, even priding that they were born in the same prefecture in Japan.

Another proof of Kumon's "pro-Imperial Japan" stance is its promotion and use of the book SADAKO AND THE THOUSAND CRANES, a story about a girl who died of complications caused by the bombs dropped by the United States in Japan. The book doesn't even mention the reason why the U.S. had to drop the bombs. What is this selective amnesia that the Kumon people want to instill in their students?

Rating: 1
Summary: sexist issue
Comment: What I don't understand about these Kumon publicists is why they give too much honor to Mr. Toru Kumon, the founder of their math-learning method. The learning method was germinated out of a MOTHER's love for her child -- not necessarily from a father's love. Mrs. Kumon, not happy with her son's disappointing grades in math, urged her husband, a math teacher, to tutor him. Mr. Kumon REFUSED to help his son because the former was a high school teacher, but the latter was a primary school student. But Mrs. Kumon kept nagging: "You help other children, but you won't even help your own child!" Because of this, Mr. Kumon finally realized his error and so was able to develop his learning method.

If it weren't for Mrs. Kumon, Mr. Kumon's star would never have shone. But now the sexist bosses of the Kumon Institute wouldn't allow Mrs. Kumon's star to shine -- most probably because of the pro-patriarchal customs of the Japanese. This is most ironic since more than 90% of Kumon instructors are women.

This book is totally non-inspirational for female Kumon instructors and even ordinary female teachers. It's an insult to the female sex. Besides that, it's a boring book.