On Canada’s 150th Birthday, friends and I gathered at a local dining spot to eat from a special, patriotic menu (including, naturally, poutine and butter tarts), complemented by a domestic beverage or two. The offerings proved to be delish.
When the time came to settle
the bill, we decided to ‘split the damage’, and our pleasant young server
watched in wonderment as our minds calculated fractions and individual
contributions, including a healthy tip.
“I could never do that,”
she marveled, “I’d definitely need a calculator. Anyone need a ‘machine’?” (for
debit or credit cards). Our group reached for bills and coins.
The server’s reaction
prompted a discussion about the current state of education and the place (or
displacement) of what we characterized as ‘fundamentals’.
Yes, fundamentals.
As a tutor, I know that they’re still around, yet I wonder just how much of a
role the basic building blocks (as I tend to term arithmetic and grammar and vocabulary) have in current education. I encounter middle school students who
confess to a fair degree of vagueness about basic numerical calculation (that
is, in your head) and limited acquaintance with words beyond an early
elementary school level. And I’m likely attending the student, because the
parents came to recognize that their child (even children) were in need of
specific training and reinforcement of these fundamentals.
Let me turn to English (and language
in general), for a moment. Among the first questions I ask a student at our
initial meeting is, “OK. Can you tell me how you make an omelette (‘spell
check’, ugh, just invited me to spell it ‘omelet’)?” “Sure, with eggs.” (my
students do know their food). “OK. Can you tell me, then, what you use
to write a story?” Brief pause. “Uh, words?”
Yes, WORDS. I proceed to
provide a verbal thumbnail about why a ‘word bank’ (with a wide variety of
vocabulary) is necessary to build, and fortunate in life to have. In my
tutoring experience, word banks are a ‘best seller’, and I have found certain
of my ‘trade secrets’ to be extremely effective in opening a student’s
‘depository’.
Times tables and word building, in my
view, are invaluable exercises designed to engage, stimulate, and train young
minds and memories, plus build self-reliance.
Will our education
systems go well beyond stressing the importance of these fundamentals?
In some settings, maybe. Rest assured, however, that Book Smart Tutors in
Canada’s major cities (Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Montreal) will reinforce the basic building blocks, after having taken the time
to assess a student’s level of proficiency in Math, English, and other
subjects, for the purpose of curing weaknesses and augmenting strengths.
One of the basic reasons
why I tutor is my passion that young learners be solidly grounded in the fundamentals.
It’s an investment that undeniably is capable of huge returns.
(Robert MacFarlane is a graduate of
Princeton University, and he has been associated with
Book
Smart Tutors for several years, tutoring in English and related subjects.)
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