Several of my friends recently have been asking me if I know anything about Kumon, an international math and reading center. Parents have legitimate cause for concern as math scores in the U.S. rank considerably lower than other leading nations as well as the Baltic States and the Russian Federation. A New York Times article from last Fall observes that U.S. math scores have plateaued since the Federal Government and No Child Left Behind laws have trumped state standards in education. I did not know much about Kumon so I looked into it.

The Internet has some good information about what Kumon is and how it is different from other learning centers. Kumon was started 50 years ago by Toru Kumon, a Japanese father who wanted to help his son. His innovative techniques helped his son so much that he was doing calculus by the time he was in 6th grade. You can watch a video ad here. Kumon is a self-paced learning method designed to create a strong foundation in numeration and instill self-motivation and a life-long desire for learning.
I was still curious about what these centers looked like, what the worksheets look like and the general feel of the place. I found on Google Maps that Portland has four different Kumon Learning Centers. I made an appointment with the one closest to me in SE Portland. When I arrived, Taek Soo, who proudly owns four of the ten Portland franchises, met with me, gave me some literature, and set up a short video for me to watch. At Kumon, he explained, students move through daily worksheets in small, incremental steps. When they have sufficiently mastered one area by passing a test, they may move on to the next area. Kumon students come into the center twice a week to have the instructor check their work, answer questions and give the student the next packet. Parents play an essential role keeping students working on their daily “Kumon Time.”

The environment was clean, comfortable and quiet music was playing in the background. Taek Soo, whose educational background is in engineering, and who has run the Portland Kumon Centers for 16 years, was extremely generous with his time and willing to answer all the questions I had. He even let me take the placement test. Given the time limit of 25 minutes, I feel ashamed to say that I wasn’t able to finish the test within these parameters. I found my computation skills to be sluggish and forgot various short cuts I once knew. Taek Soo did however compliment me on my fraction skills. I found myself so intrigued by Kumon that I decided to sign up for the month of June to try it out for myself. The monthly tuition is $100 plus a one-time $50 sign-up fee. The price is cheaper than a professional development class, though I won’t get any credits for it. The curriculum at Kumon goes all the way through calculus as well as offering additional courses in statistics and engineering math. I am fascinated to see how it will go and look forward to sharing my experience with my readers.

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