The Nine Bead Abacus

I've been thinking about how to teach place-value for over a decade now. One of the ideas I had was to take the standard toy abacus, turn it on its side, and lop off the tenth bead to leave the abacus with only nine beads per column. My line of reasoning was that this visual/spatial/kinetic experience could easily form the basis for teaching place value in decimal notation at a later point in the educational process. Since Jackson is finally four years old, I decided it was time to get serious about this idea and do something about it. We already have 2 regular 10x10 abacus toys that are oriented horizontally and, quite frankly, I want to throw them in the trash.

It turns out there doesn't seem to be a lot of information out there about a 9 bead abacus. The Japanese use a 5 bead variant which seems like it would work extremely well for PRACTICAL day to day usage, but I'm more interested in the educational utility of an abacus at this point and time. I managed to find one guy, Joe VanCleave, who has written down his thoughts on the 9 bead abacus. His thoughts are totally in alignment with my own, but he has clearly given it more in depth thought. In addition to the ideas I already had, Joe proposes using a two-tone alternating color system to help the user distinguish between a 6 and a 7 for example. I really like the idea of using two color tones to "break it up" a little and his prototype looks quite good.


Joe doesn't seem to have any actual data posted pertaining to his research, but based on his experience and analysis, I am going to say his educated guesses about the value of a 9 bead abacus are spot-on.

The way I see this working is by starting a kid off with the 9 bead abacus, they get the conceptual understanding of place value, addition, and subtraction. With a large enough number of columns, and perhaps a separator of some sort, one could easily design an abacus to support "chunking" which would be useful for multiplication and more difficult subtraction operation. After a kid "gets it" with respect to place value, the parent/teacher could then provide the child with a 5 beaded soroban, which seems to be the next logical step in the progression of numerical education from a logical perspective to a practical perspective.

Check out this video of a 9 year old who has become so proficient with a soroban that she is able to do arithmetic simply by imagining the presence of a soroban. To me, that is of questionable value from an educational standpoint. Performance-wise, it is certainly impressive. But I feel the most important part of this whole abacus thing is the conceptual relevance of place-value.

The Importance of Character in Life (and Education)

How many times have I said it before: we must let our children fail when they are young! How else to learn?

Pennsylvania Joins the List of States Facing a School Cheating Scandal

Humans are so damn predictable. When people are financially rewarded or punished based predominately on standardized test results, the inevitable result is cheating. Why? The objective and purpose for excellence in schooling is forgotten in a culture that lives and dies by a competitive process which has become disconnected from its actual impact on society.

I don't oppose merit based pay in the school system. I do, however, oppose the idea that we can evaluate a teacher's merits based upon standardized test results. At least, no standardized test I've ever seen.

Dr. Herzberg's two-factor theory addresses the reality of hygiene needs and their role in performance motivation. According to Herzberg, salary and wages are hygiene factors. Hygiene here refers to the idea that the lack of the factor causes dissatisfaction, but the presence of such a factor does not lead to sustained satisfaction or motivation.

It seems to me the school boards and legislators have substituted standardized testing in place of actual leadership and meaningful recognition in the workplace.

The Paideia Program

I came across the paideia program about 10 years ago. When I first read it, I fell in love with the vision these educators painted. It strongly influenced my thoughts about what K-12 education should be and what the real purpose of education is--namely, to lead individuals in the pursuit of discovery about the world and, more importantly, self.

Several nights ago, I picked up the paideia program and started reading again for the first time in what seems like forever. The ideas are as compelling now as they were back when I was feeling the sting of a stifling educational environment--perhaps reinforced by my desire to shield my son from the pain that I suffered through. The Paideia proposal and program builds on the pedagogical philosophy of Dewey by delivering specific advice on pedagogical methods and content. I feel many of you would find the Paideia trilogy by Mortimer Adler to be of interest. Please check it out if you have any interest in applying the "great books" approach in education.

Detentionslip.org

Just came across this blog.  Some intriguing reads to be found there.

Our neighborhood school here in Boston

Did some looking into the public elementary school across the street from me and Greg here in Boston, and it has some great programs & approaches. The William W. Henderson Inclusion Elementary School: http://boston.k12.ma.us/Henderson/curriculum.htm

Bill Henderson, Principal, has written up some really helpful documentation on the school's efforts to engage non-reader students and their parents: http://boston.k12.ma.us/Henderson/images/How%20a%20Boston%20School%20Boosted%20Home%20Reading.pdf

I'll be reaching out in early January to see if we can chat with Bill H. or some of the Henderson school staff.

Cyberbullying

Somewhat off topic, but we must remember that children come into the class room from another place and environment, sometimes after being exposed to a variety of stressors. Reading this article was like driving past a car wreck.

Despite how disturbing it is, I just had to keep reading. I am amazed and disappointed that children are granted the freedom to do whatever they please on the internet with no consideration for their maturity or readiness to exercise the power that comes with access to social networking and the online world in general.

On the one hand, the offending children certainly behaved reprehensibly. But, on the other hand, I found myself more shocked with the cavalier attitude that some of the parents displayed. Minimizing the incident is a natural response, but refusing to acknowledge that any harm was done seems tragic to me--tragic because a valuable learning opportunity, which came at the cost of another human being's health and safety, was lost in a sea of parental ambivalence.

When I visited the Waldorf school in Palm Harbor, I asked one of the senior teachers how they handle bullying. She told me that any students which are involved, whether bullied or bully, have to sit down face to face and discuss what is going on, why it's happening, and how it makes each person feel.

I was surprised that any school would make a victim suffer through such a process. But upon further consideration, I did wonder whether or not it was more effective than punishment or expulsion. Perhaps it taught the victim to be assertive and strong? Perhaps it taught the offender that he would be held accountable for his actions? Perhaps it is humiliating enough to have to explain yourself in front of your teachers and victim.

In any case, it seems no matter who they are or where they come from, kids today have more stress on their minds than ever before.