8/10/2019 On the Just-Right Level of Study

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8/10/2019 On the Just-Right Level of Study

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STUDENTS NEED THE JUST-

RIGHT LEVEL OF WORK

SKILLS AT THE TIME OF

ENROLLMENT

The just-right level includes

the just-right level of work

skills and the just-right level

of understanding. Now lets think

of the just-right level of work

skills. For example, a junior high

school student who does not

study so much may start his study

from multiplication and division

instead of fractions. An Instructor

may have him start even addition

instead of multiplication or

division. Why does the Instructor

need to do this?You may think that, only from

an understanding standpoint,

the student can start Level E

because he is a junior high school

student. I am saying it only from

an understanding standpoint.

However, if you try to start him

at Level E, what do you think will

happen? He is a junior high school

student who has not studied hard

before, so of course he does nothave work skills at all. Every

student needs the balance of work

skills and understanding. A junior

high school student needs enough

work skills to study Kumon

worksheets, otherwise he cannot

advance smoothly.

At the time of enrollment,

students need the just-right level

of work skills, not the just-right

level of understanding. They need

to be able to do the work easily,

not just understand the material.

You should carefully observe the

balance of the just-right level

of work skills and the just-right

level of understanding of the

students. A students work load

of the time of enrollment usually

becomes very high because of

achieving the just-right level of

work skills. From the point of view

of the just-right level of work

skills, starting from Level A is

sometimes appropriate even for a

junior high school student instead

of Level E. We should explain this

situation accurately to the student

as the Kumon Method.

(West Japan Intensive Lecture, Sept. 1988)

THE STANDARD COMPLETION

TIME JUDGES THE

JUST-RIGHT LEVEL OF

WORK SKILLS

The just-right level of

understanding means the level

at which students are able to

understand the content though

it takes them quite a while to

complete the worksheets. They

are able to solve problems but

it takes time. The level at which

students can complete their work

comfortably is the level where

they can do the work easily and

it must be lower than the just-

right level of understanding. This

is the reason that students usuallystart their study from a lower level

in the Kumon Method.

I think that Instructors are

mindfully taking care of students

just-right level of work skills.

The Standard Completion Time

is actually made for judging the

just-right level of work skills.

If a student cannot complete

worksheets within the SCT, his

study is challenging. The SCT isdetermined by the point of the

just-right level of work skills.

If a student starts his study from

the level at which he can complete

his work comfortably, or at the

just-right level of work skills,

he is going to gain concentration

ability. If he starts his study beyond

the just-right level of work skills,

he cannot obtain the concentration

ability. So it is important that he

starts his study from the point of

the just-right level of work skills.

(Chairmans round-table conference,

Oct. 1991)

THE JUST-RIGHT LEVEL

FOR DEVELOPING A

GOOD ATTITUDE TOWARD

STUDYING

I would like to tell you about

the case of a student in order

to explain the just-right level

for developing a good attitude

toward studying. A student failed

the entrance examination of the

senior high school that he most

wanted to get into, and he realized

keenly a lack of his English ability.

As a ninth grader, he enrolled in

Kumon on March 12. He started

Level E of the Kumon English

Program for Japanese students

and completed Level P (the last

level of the program at that time)

on April 29. There are 12 levels

from Level E to Level P. Two

hundred pages times 12 levels are2400 pages. He completed 2400

worksheets in only 49 days.

He could study 100 pages per

day easily at the beginning. He

was kind of a smart kid. He himself

thought that he could complete

the program easily. However,

after he became a freshman in

his local high school in April, his

study did not progress as fast as

it did before. But he didnt giveup continuing his study, and he

shortened his sleeping time. I

think that such an experiment is

okay sometime during a young

age. He completed the program on

April 29 by shortening his sleeping

time. What interested me most was

his state when his sleeping time

was shortened. He mentioned that

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he was very sleepy when doing

anything except worksheets.

What made his success was the

starting point of Level E. This was

the just-right level for developing

a good attitude toward studying! If

he had started at Level G, he mightnot have completed program. It

was good that he started from

Level E. He was able to estimate

the time when he would complete

the program by shortening his

sleeping hours. This is exactly the

just-right level for developing a

good attitude toward studying.

(West Japan Intensive Lecture, Sept. 1988)

THE SECRET OF SWIMMING

3000 METERS IS THAT YOU

SWIM 200 METERS AT A

VERY SLOW PACE

I wonder if my experience helps

Instructors. I started swimming

once a week because I contracted

an illness. I swam 500 meters at

first; swam 1000 meters the next

week; swam 1000 meters three

times the next; swam 1500 meters

three times the next; swam 2000

meters three times the next;swam 2500 meters three times

the next; and then swam 3000

meters. While I was swimming

around 2000 meters, my wife told

me, Please dont force yourself

to swim too much. I am anxious

that you might be drowning in

the swimming pool until you

come back home. My doctor also

said that I may not notice my

physical fatigue. I dont think thatI can swim 2500 or 3000 meters

without knowing my fatigue.

What is the secret that I was

able to swim such a long distance?

That is exactly the just-right

level for developing a good

attitude toward studying. I swim

at a very slow pace that I cannot

swim more slowly than this. I will

sink if I swim more slowly than

this. As a result, after swimming

around 200 meters, I can guess

that I can swim ten times of this.

This is a very important point.

The student I mentioned above

was able to solve 100 pages easilybecause of starting his study from

Level E. I suppose that he guessed

he could complete the program

because he solved 100 pages at

the beginning. Starting from Level

E instead of Level G is the just-

right level for developing a good

attitude toward studying.

(East Japan Intensive Lecture, Sept. 1988)

A CASE OF A REFORM SCHOOL

There is a reform school that

uses the Kumon Method. Students

in the school are around junior

high school age, and they have

committed a serious crime like

an adult. None of the students

got a good score in their former,

ordinary school. I thought that

there were some good students

among them, but it was said there

were no exceptions. If they could

read even letters only, they usuallyrecovered from the situation and

did not enter such a reform school.

It was said that they were in an

extremely bad state.

The students are placed in a

solitary cell at first. The cell is

locked, so they cannot go out.

Then, what do they do? They are

made to solve Kumons lower

level worksheets, such as 3A,

2A or A. They cannot go out, sothey have no choice but to do

Kumon worksheets, even for one

hour or two hours. While solving

the worksheets in order, to their

surprise, they came to understand

multiplication, which they didnt

understand at their schools before

coming to reform school. They

didnt understand fractions at their

school, but they came to be able to

solve them without thinking about

it. In the reform school, they started

their Kumon study from Level 3A

or 2A and progressed to Level I

in half a year. They progressed to

Level J after one year. This is theeffect of the Kumon Method.

They say that this way of study

is far more interesting than watch-

ing television. Without watching

television, they are thinking of

math problems even in the wash-

room. They are thinking things

like, That problem of factoriza-

tion is interesting, I solve the

equation in this way, but are there

any other ways to solve it? or I

cannot solve it in this way, but if I

change this expression.

Then, they begin to study

English. They want to take English

Aptitude Tests. A student wanted to

take the level 5 and level 4 tests

at the same time. A teacher at the

school suggested he take the level

5 test only because the level 4 test

was a little bit challenging for him.

The student answered, After being

released from this reform school, Imay not be able to take the tests,

so I want to take the level 4 test

while I am here. I am okay, even

though I fail. His story impressed

me deeply.

It is very important to give a

student the just-right level of

study. It is the strength of the

Kumon Method that if you pursue

each childs just-right level of

study, he can progress even thoughhe starts from a lower level. I

believe there is no such case in

conventional school classes. Now

it is obvious that conventional

class style is not a proper way of

education. The just-right level of

study is indeed the true form for

the world education.

(Chairmans Lecture at Sapporo Branch,

Oct. 1993)