Anonymous wrote:I don't understand yelling at kids while they do worksheets. What exactly does that accomplish?

It depends on why they are yelling. Because they aren't doing the work or don't know how?

Anonymous wrote:Are the older kids also South Asian? My aunt ran a Kumon and she treated the Asian kids the way the Asian parents wanted and the non-Asian kids the way she thought non-Asians wanted. It turned out some of the non-Asians also wanted their kids chewed out and chastised.

Op here. I think Kumon is awesome. The majority of the kids are south asian. My husband is south asian and it connects us to the community because I see many kids/ moms in our immediate neighborhood or the YMCA. The asian kids seem serious about Kumon, and I haven't noticed the manager yelling as much at them. The owner is the one with a sometimes nasty attitude. The instructors are mostly adults and seem to be happy. The other programs recommend here are too far away and more $$$. My 7-year-old likes Kumon. I am not strong in math, but dh is very strong; in fact, he has a Ph.D. in statistics. Most of the Indians are immigrants so their kids are first generation. I have seen shy kids build confidence socially by participating in Kumon. I am there around 3 hours a week, so I notice stuff.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kumon is stupid. Your kid can be super awesome at math without Kumon.

No lie was told here. But you have to realize for a certain type of parent in the DMV, sending your kid to Kumon is more about signaling status and your parenting style than it is about helping your kid in school. Kumon is just worksheets. It's a lazy way to signal that you are tiger mom without actually being one. Parents who are serious about math acceleration and enrichment are doing AOPS, private tutors, and teaching their kids themselves.

A Kumon kid can do a ton of multi-digit additions problems in under a minute. A kid who's getting high-quality math enrichment instruction can do a problem like this: The letters E, H, I, N, R, S, T, V, and Y each stand for a different digit in the following addition problem

NINE + SEVEN + SEVEN + SEVEN = THIRTY

Find the digit value of each letter.

(The solution is E = 9, H = 5, I = 2, N = 3, R = 6, S = 4, T = 1, V = 7, and Y = 8, so the expression is 3239 + 49793 + 49793 + 49793 = 152618. If you don't understand that finding the solution to this problem requires deeper knowledge than doing reams of arithmetic worksheets, lord help ya.)

I agree. There is a Kumon center in every shopping center and it's easy to just drop your kid off and let the employees do their thing. It's like the rec sports of math. AOPS, RSM, private tutors, etc. is like travel sports. The difference in quality is noticeable.

For math enrichment we just taught our kids programming since it something both of us do. Our kids can write a program that outputs printable worksheets with randomized arithmetic problems.

I don't understand yelling at kids while they do worksheets. What exactly does that accomplish?

We're east Asian, and sometimes there is a fine line between exerting pressure on a student to open unlock their potential, and abuse. What works with one student definitely does not with another, and that's on the parent to decide, not the teacher, because teachers don't know the student as well, and children mask their feeling during class. I have a son and daughter who react differently to different types of pressure. I parent them differently. My daughter has a music teacher that I would never, ever, foist on my son, because that would not work at all. I am present at every music lesson so I can intervene.

It takes a lot of psychology and emotional accompaniment to push one's child without traumatizing them.

Personally, I prefer the Art of Problem Solving to any other math training, OP, despite the fact that Kumon was developed in my native land. AoPS teaches critical thinking, unlike all the others. If you encounter a yeller or someone who sets off alarm bells, don't let your guard down. They might end up working well with your child, or not. They might work well only because you're there. Stay vigilant.

Are the older kids also South Asian? My aunt ran a Kumon and she treated the Asian kids the way the Asian parents wanted and the non-Asian kids the way she thought non-Asians wanted. It turned out some of the non-Asians also wanted their kids chewed out and chastised.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of people who work with kids are shockingly bad at working with kids.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

As someone who has worked with kids my entire career in several different venues (education, recreation, childcare) I would say that there are more people working with kid who shouldn't be that you might imagine. I would not agree that "a lot of people" who work with kids are bad, that makes it sound like it might be a majority, which it is not. For instance, years at an elementary school spending time in many classrooms showed me that about 10-20% of teachers are really excellent, around 70% are just fine, and about 10% are really bad and shouldn't be working with kids at all. What I have never understood is why it is so hard to get those people out. I think it's mostly the phenomenon that principals used to be teachers themselves and sometimes not very good ones so they have a lot of sympathy for teachers when perhaps they shouldn't.

None of this has to do with Kumon about which I know nothing.

+1 unfortunately. I worked at an ES also and the short way some teachers talked to students—as if they’re dumb, troublemakers, or beasts—was really shocking. And the accountability is not there. Whistleblowers get treated badly.

Anonymous wrote:Take your money to RSM or AoPS

+1 AoPS

This is what you are paying for. You outsource tiger parenting, and you got a professional tiger parent.

or find a different Kumon site. They are franchised, so each location is separately managed…

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kumon is stupid. Your kid can be super awesome at math without Kumon.

Umm okay. You don't know if op has good math skills or the time to do that. Would you say the same for sports? Do you think she's going to regret helping her kid learn math? The majority of Americans are scared of math, so there's that.

I’m sure OP is capable of printing math worksheets and handing them to her kid herself.

Anonymous wrote:Kumon is stupid. Your kid can be super awesome at math without Kumon.

No lie was told here. But you have to realize for a certain type of parent in the DMV, sending your kid to Kumon is more about signaling status and your parenting style than it is about helping your kid in school. Kumon is just worksheets. It's a lazy way to signal that you are tiger mom without actually being one. Parents who are serious about math acceleration and enrichment are doing AOPS, private tutors, and teaching their kids themselves.

A Kumon kid can do a ton of multi-digit additions problems in under a minute. A kid who's getting high-quality math enrichment instruction can do a problem like this: The letters E, H, I, N, R, S, T, V, and Y each stand for a different digit in the following addition problem

NINE + SEVEN + SEVEN + SEVEN = THIRTY

Find the digit value of each letter.

(The solution is E = 9, H = 5, I = 2, N = 3, R = 6, S = 4, T = 1, V = 7, and Y = 8, so the expression is 3239 + 49793 + 49793 + 49793 = 152618. If you don't understand that finding the solution to this problem requires deeper knowledge than doing reams of arithmetic worksheets, lord help ya.)

Anonymous wrote:I legitimately assumed this is the experience most parents seek at Kumon since they think it conveys “rigor”

+1

Don't people realize that these centers are staffed by people not paid well enough to pretend to care? I think the yelling and dismissive attitude is partially a put on to make the instructors seem strict and tiger mommish, but also a natural byproduct of not being particularly well paid or well treated by the employer.

Anonymous wrote:A lot of people who work with kids are shockingly bad at working with kids.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

As someone who has worked with kids my entire career in several different venues (education, recreation, childcare) I would say that there are more people working with kid who shouldn't be that you might imagine. I would not agree that "a lot of people" who work with kids are bad, that makes it sound like it might be a majority, which it is not. For instance, years at an elementary school spending time in many classrooms showed me that about 10-20% of teachers are really excellent, around 70% are just fine, and about 10% are really bad and shouldn't be working with kids at all. What I have never understood is why it is so hard to get those people out. I think it's mostly the phenomenon that principals used to be teachers themselves and sometimes not very good ones so they have a lot of sympathy for teachers when perhaps they shouldn't.

None of this has to do with Kumon about which I know nothing.

Anonymous wrote:Kumon is stupid. Your kid can be super awesome at math without Kumon.

Umm okay. You don't know if op has good math skills or the time to do that. Would you say the same for sports? Do you think she's going to regret helping her kid learn math? The majority of Americans are scared of math, so there's that.