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UNIVERSAL EDUCATION
HOW I BELIEVE IT CAN BE ACHIEVED
Up to the present I have made no real effort to sell my educational resources, my main task has been to identify what is vital about education, although I have designed and redesigned my Abacus One model.(trying to perfect it) I have really made no serious attempt to sell it, but massive atempts to introduce the concept, until the present time.
(Hopefully Abacus One made in China will be perfect and available at low cost)
My low case reading cards are clearly identifiable the children themselves are able to explain to their parents, just how to use the cards effectively, and the parents whether they like it or not, are unable to miss the instructions on the back of the cards and further instructions on the layout of the alphabet.
Producing these cards in this manner makes available to parents and primary schools, an extremely simple and totally essential reading resource, the layout is printed in black.(can be photocopied) the cards are in four colors with the instructions in black on the back of every card each pack contains two letters of each letter of the alphabet. Such a useful and essential resource is clearly understood by both primary teachers and parents.
Together with the abacus, they provide an essential starting point, in what I consider to be essential basic skills when learning to read count and think.
The personal ability of every child in reading and mathematics, is the limiting factor within both the speed and depth of every child's education.
Without the ability to read and understand mathematics concepts as they arise throughout the child’s life, at the appropriate time, their education will be impaired. It is my considered opinion that every healthy child can develop perfect reading and mathematic ability, allowing the child to work independently but with supervision by the time they are seven years old, some children will be capable of independent work at a younger age, so much the better for those individual children, once a child has develop perfect reading and basic mathematics ability, motivation and opportunity play far the biggest part within their continuing education, with some children personal motivation, within a Western world setting, is most likely to be sufficient, but within the Third World, where motivation is most likely to be at its strongest, we have to provide opportunity, with computers radios televisions books and magazines available, even without schoolteachers or what we consider to be normal school buildings, to provide a complete primary, secondary and university education. This can be provided, simply by volunteer students working in their gap year's from the Western world, the interrelationship and understanding of each other's circumstances, will be an effective substitute for the Western world resources, children from the Third World can be usefully found employment, both within agriculture and construction, alongside receiving both practical and theoretical instruction within all subjects.
In the final analysis of education, personal motivation is inevitably the limiting factor.
By failing to teach reading and mathematics both effectively and universally we are denying millions of children of ever achieving their full potential, the kinaesthetic and multi sensory ability of an abacus has led me to consider the possibilities of education and the realization that every aspect of human understanding, whether professional, mechanical, agricultural or philosophical, are within the grasp, of any child that has the ability to read broadly, and calculate effectively and logically, after seven years of age I consider motivation to be the only limiting factor, providing those of us, who have foresight and ability, are willing to work towards a better world.
The first effective steps, has got to be remodeling primary school education within the Western world.
I am intending to write my considered observations directly under the headings associated with the work of Howard Gardener, in order that you may consider the relevance of what I suggest, alongside broadly identifiable human mental abilities.
Seven Intelligences
Verbal/Linguistic
This intelligence, which is related to words and language--written and spoken--dominates most Western educational systems.
Conversation in the form of inquiry and explanation best demonstrates the human ability to teach and learn, without words we can make no inquiry, without words we can give no effective explanation, a child having taught itself to speak by copying, the sound of its natural language and identifying for itself the meaning and manner of that language is readily able to speak with both children and adults, apart from repetitious chanting ( rhythmic mental ability) or the concept from a well told story. The effective memory ability, of a four or five-year-old child will be seriously underused without a specifically identifiable purpose, whole class teaching, will we be an essential part of every school day, but when we consider the vast abilities of normal intelligence to understand instantly many vital pieces of information whole class teaching itself, will be reduced to the bare essentials, specifically utilised for chanting exercises, where rhythmic memory is part of what needs to be learnt, which when learned effectively becomes a part of the instant individual subconscious memory.
In order to best utilise our verbal intelligence, group working, and effective one-to-one explanation holds out our best opportunity to develop the childs vocally associated intelligence.
We shall never remodel primary education, without large doses of trial and error, unless we search out and explore the possibilities which we considered to be waiting to be exploited, from brain research and consideration, we have little hope of effectively building a primary school model for the Third World, so therefore obviously trial and error, alongside effective evaluation, are vital.
My own experience in trying to introduce the abacus into English Primary Schools,
clearly illustrates that only intervention at the highest political level, will ever be effective in introducing change within primary schools, the first thing that needs to be done, is to identify those schools already establishing top-quality education, it is to those schools that we must look for effective trailing, if a concept works well with one child, we must discover whether it works equally as well with many children, the abacus does this, I feel that virtually every primary school teacher accepts the importance of synthetic phonics within the United Kingdom, effective the reception class teachers have never abandoned phonics, simply by the use of rhythmic chanting of the alphabet in the alphabet sound and ensuring that every letter of the alphabet can be recognized with every letter and sound associated together our children are ready to be taught phonetically,
Logical/Mathematical Intelligence
Often called "scientific thinking," this intelligence deals with inductive and deductive thinking/reasoning, numbers and the recognition of abstract patterns.
The recognition of any specific number in itself is very quickly no more difficult then the recognition and understanding of any other word, if elementary arithmetic is taught properly the processing of numbers is very straightforward, but the processing and relationship between any two numbers creating an answer which is simply understood, utilises a far greater part of the working brain.
The abacus illustrates the working principles of mathematics, initially without any mental calculation, once the principle of counting to add or subtract, counting numbers that lead to multiplying, illustrates the concept of multiplication, utilising wrote learning in the form of multiplication chanting, once considered not to be a benefit is exactly the opposite, using the abacus to physically demonstrate answers is of great benefit, but the value of multiplication instantly within a mental form, can never be overstated within mental arithmetic, with the benefit of calculators we can check complicated sums for perfect accuracy, but using a calculator to learn the basic mathematics, is far more difficult then watching the process unfold on an abacus, the abacus illustrates perfectly the decimal system, it allows a very young child quickly to understand the layout of arithmetic, abacus one develops instant appreciation of written numbers, the form of written numbers translate easily into numeric symbols, developing smooth mental ability within the mathematics is impossible without the use of language, aided by visual memory and subconscious memory, spatial reorganisation takes place on an abacus embedding itself deep into the subconscious memory.
The process of numbers that the child readily understands develops not only the working brain associated with numbers, it develops the mental capacity within reading and understanding what is being read, any child having been taught mathematics on an abacus develops a mental mentality where it will be never left behind at whatever level of complication mathematics is undertaken.
I should like to include here the opinion of my friend Winston Haxton who consistently utilised mathematics in his daily work, who has also encountered students that have taken up physics without a proficient knowledge of mathematics, entering university without competent mathmatics can be only compaired to entering a marathon race with a broken leg where science is concerned.
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