How far would you be willing to travel for weekly Soroban classes?

[Maquenzie]

Oh Tom,

Would you also be willing to tell us other things people teach their kids that hinders learning to use the soroban?

[Soroban]

Hi Maquenzie,

Well, to be perfectly honest I'm very biased to what a "good" Soroban program would be. I've basically grew up learning Soroban starting at the age of 4, so I see it as more than "just" a way to do math. I know for me it's taught me a lot of lessons about my personal strengths and weaknesses even outside of math. I've made life long friends. It continues to teach me as I've switched from being just a student to being a teacher as well.

And those weren't lessons that I learned in 2.5 years.
It's been 2.5 decades and I still feel like I don't know enough.

Even looking at schools across the US and in Japan, and even outside of Soroban the very best programs teach a lot more than just what it says it does.

I'm sorry if that sounded a bit too philosophical or beyond what you might be looking to get from Soroban. I believe that if you're trying to reach your full potential, the inner game becomes critical no matter what you're trying to to accomplish. And if you've been through the full process of learning through something like Soroban, it'll transfer into other portions of your life.


In terms of common mistakes I've listed the top  in order of the most counter productive:
1. rote memorizing math facts/learning incorrectly (1+1 is 2 instead of "figuring it out" using a Soroban)
2. Giving up when their child hits a wall in their education (usually happens in the 3rd year)
3. using a cheap Soroban (I see parents using $1 Sorobans, I move them onto better sorobans as quickly as i can)
4. Moving onto new topics too early/not testing their kids using objective measures
5. Expecting linear growth (this is only a problem if parents give up when they don't "see" constant growth, kids usually get used to having sporadic growth)

Hope this helps.

Tom

[DannyandAmy]

@Tom,

That's why I said those classes better be REALLY good    I don't disagree with you, Tom; sorry I wasn't very clear. But sometimes if you translate the time you put into sacrificing to attend a class, one'll find that it  increases the price of the class itself, and if it is only a class of mediocre quality, it's not that great an invenstment in your time and money.

But for a REALLY GOOD program, like what you describe and from what it sounds what you're doing, oh it would definitely be worth the travel time and money! Sometimes I wish there were more of you, all spread out in all areas of the world teaching soroban.

Do you have a list of schools you've observed? Where can we find schools like what you described? I would love to know which schools you would recommend and not recommend. Maybe if that's hard for you (I'm an educator myself so I know how it can be tough endorsing specific schools if you know how it should be done ), maybe you could tells what aspects of specific schools you like? I'm thinking maybe that'll make it easier for some us to find good soroban schools in our area.

[Soroban]

Hi DannyandAmy,

I see, thanks for the clarification

Yes, I do find it difficult to recommend schools.
But I think if I had to choose, I would really try to look at the long term students that have stayed with the class. Do they have students who stay for years? if not why not?
Do the senior students display at least some of the characteristics you would want your child to in the future?

I think it's relatively easy to look good on a brochure or in a 30 minute sales pitch. While developing a student over the years means they see and are influenced by the teacher and the class.

I wouldn't necessary use only this as a benchmark for a class, but I think it's a good barometer that a lot parents might not initially consider.

Let me know what you think,
Tom

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