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Easy Learning - John Nicholson - 27-06-2005
Does any one realise that using an abacus is the easist way a child can learn maths,Does any one have any data that is tested and proven
Will any one run trials properly, i will give them the abaci
[COLOR="Red"]every teacher or parent needs to start here
this the best research available
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fcb8nT0QC6o[/COLOR]
Easy Learning - geodob - 27-06-2005
Hi John,
If you have a look at alabacus.com you'll find a research page on the Abacus.
Crucially the abacus develops the visual spatial skills for the mental imaging of maths.
Further, the layout of an abacus develops one's maths procedural ability.
I would suggest that this also supports the semantic retrieval associated with maths.
The involvement of the Tactile sense, when manipulating the abacus.
Also introduces a multi-sensory factor, which reinforces learning.
The design of the abacus has few parallels in excellence!
It can be built as small as a matchbox, up to the size of a blackboard.
In an age when teaching materials cost a small fortune, it is extremely cheap!
The design and materials also make it very sturdy. It would be hard to break an abacus? [Though mine is cast in bronze.]
Though given that the WHO estimate that between 5% to 10% of people in Western countries suffer from the maths dysfunction of Dyscalculia.
Where visual spatial mental imaging is a major factor. The abacus offers most noteworthy potential.
I also note your offer to provide Abaci to run trials.
In which case, I wonder if you would consider extending this to Adults and Post-Secondary Students?
I am a Moderator of the dyscalculiaforum.com website.
Where I would be interested in conducting some clinical trials.
Perhaps we could work collaboratively on this, if you have the time?
I've been reviewing articles on maths acquisition and dysfunction that I'd be happy to share with you, if you're interested?
Anyway John, let me know what you think of this? As I'd be interested in discussing it further with you.
Geoff.
Easy Learning - John Nicholson - 27-06-2005
at last, you must have a look at my website http//www.abacusandalphabet.com
i read some of your postings this morning and tried to send you an email
but you do not acept
are you realy in deepist aus i have a daughter in Sydney just now.
i could see at my first look at your stuff that you would no what i am on about.
I would love to co-operate with you.
can you give me more background to your self, do it on an e mail
jn for primary education and farming
Easy Learning - Christina - 28-06-2005
This discussion on the abacus is very worthwhile as research supports the notion that the abacus is a powerfully effective tool for teaching mathematics.
Further, a recent study using functional magnetic resonance imaging suggested that the neural correlates of abacus-developed calculation strategies differ from those previously documented for non-abacus-developed strategies (Hanakawa et al., 2003; Pesenti et al., 2001). Specifically, there was increased activation in areas associated with visuospatial processing (e.g., right premotor and parietal areas) during the use of abacus-developed calculation strategies. While there were differences in experimental design between the two studies that could have affected imaging results, these findings suggest that the strategies employed by individuals trained with an abacus may be neurobiologically-manifested in a different way than the strategies used by non-abacus-trained individuals.
Literature Cited
Hanakawa, T., Honda, M. Okada, T., Fukuyama, Hi, and Shibasaki, H. 2003. Neural correlates underlying mental calculation in abacus experts: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study. NeuroImage, 19(2), pp. 296-307.
Pesenti, M., Zago, L., Crivello, F., Mellet, E., Samson, D., Duroux, B., Seron, X., Mazoyer, B. and Tzourio-Mazoyer, N., 2001. Mental calculation in a prodigy is sustained by right prefrontal and medial temporal areas. Nat. Neurosci. 4, pp. 103–107.
Easy Learning - John Nicholson - 28-06-2005
I am quoting from an enthusiast in accelerated learning.
If the body does not move the mind does not grove.
some years ago i re-designed the abacus to create a more relevent tool for starting maths with children three and four years of age. there is no problem teaching them, but a difficult problem intoducing it into schools.
Every child that has been introduced to it properley has gone on to do well in mathmatics and where children have been regarded as dislexic using it as promoted their selfconfidence and they have succeded in grasping the nessacery skills to read.
the two things are in my opinion both closley linked in brain function it is my observation that the mojority of the mind is subconcious. speech itself demonstrates words produced without apparent detailed thought. the subconcious mind prepares explanation and enquiry at will.
it is not possible in my opinion to isolate any particular brain function to any particular part of the brain. ok i fully accept that electronic scanning of the brain dinotes brain acctivity in various areas but this does not mean that asistance in thinking is not comming from areas not asociated with that particular brain function.
although studying the brain will undoubtubly lead to better understanding of it is to some extent wasted unless we can usefully asociate better teaching methods through what we are learning it is ironic to me that a five thousand year old tool cannot be beaten as a mathmatics teaching resorce, but totally infuriating to me that teaching in the western world appear to be unwilling to grasp a situation that is redily recognised, in china, japan and previously in russia.
although i am supported by some accademics in mathmatics in principle a professor of theroetical physics i need a concerntrated research programme backed by education phsycologists and neurologists working on brain function.
my intrest in how the brain works was stimulated by the realisation that asian children developed a mental mathmatic map, on which they were able to build comprehension of all futher maths concepts.
i am also extremily intrested in how a child learns to read. and have developed what i concider to be a systomatic program of essential layers of knowledge. synthetic phonics now the buss program in the uk is a natural part of my method.
Easy Learning - Christina - 29-06-2005
It is true that the parts of the brain do not function in isolation from one another. However, certain parts have unique qualities that render them necessary to serve specific functions. Most higher-order thinking processes require the integrated activity of many brain regions. What is interesting about the Hanakawa (2003) study is that it shows that the combination of involved brain areas differs between mathematically engaged abacus and non-abacus learners. It is possible that increased activation in visuospatially-related areas reflects a neurobiological underpinning of the “mental mathematic map†developed by asian children who learn with the abacus.
Easy Learning - John Nicholson - 30-06-2005
Thank you for the reply it is must intresting but not unexpected to me.
BUT DRIVING AN ABACUS TO LEARN MATHS IS POSSIBLE FOR EVERY HEALTHY
CHILD
WE NEED UK PROVEN RESEARCH AND ADOPTION OF THE ABACUS IN EVERY SCHOOL
IT IS THE PERFECT TOOL FOR GELDOFFS NEW HORIZON IN AFRICA
all we need to do is network education one child can teach another every day in every subject we are naturely doing it. what is this website doing but that.
Easy Learning - John Nicholson - 16-07-2005
being as poor as a church mouse, my visits to the bucher have been of late far fewer. my discussiouns with the two guys that run the shop the owner and his friend of many years always concern the abacus, (neither of them can add up mentaly) like many others they think i am stark raving bonkers, at 65 years of age i have visited beverley cattle market for over sixty years,with my father at first but from 23 years of age as an indipendant self employed farmer, with fathers help i grew my buisiness to 700 acres and 3000 breeding pigs counting was my life. Unilever and a bank MIDLAND where no one could count desroyed my life.
The only fun left to me was sweet revenge i have helped hundreds of farmers take millions of pounds from the banks.yesterday one of them suprised me he paid. so with a few quid in my pocket i faced the butcher this morning, little did i know, that he had told my squese, that he was now convinsed that i was right, on monday evening on channle 4 or five he had seen a program featuring the abacus in china helping autistic children learn mathmatics,
EURECA fame at last Archamedes new that 2500 years ago. wake up world
Easy Learning - John Nicholson - 17-07-2005
Let us use the knowledge we already have.After discovering the properties of the Abacus, and contemplating and researching how we learn everything that we do, you could say that I have become a constructionist as regards the human ability to construct layers of knowledge as we progress’s through life. For instance no one appears to teach us how to speak, but virtually every healthy human learns to speak, through their ability to copy, we are surrounded with speech, we learn to speak through two phenomena’s saturation and necessity, between the ages of approximately one and a half years to two and half years of age the majority of us learn to speak. Maria Montessori working with children who were considered to be mentally ill, discovered that children learn by doing things, once this concept was fully understood by Maria Montessori she spent the rest of life developing real life illustrations in order to teach efficiently. Her personal contribution towards education will never be equalled.
Looking closely at what we consider to be the frontier’s of education, as it is presently perceived, the real problems are associated with ensuring universal primary education, once a young child is able to read count and think, education at every level is available to it. Western Europe and North America within the last two hundred years have embraced universal education, and through the process of dynamic technical development, much of it created by the necessity to fight two world wars during the last century, have achieved a standard of living the envy of the rest the world, with the exception of Japan.
Close examination of the written works of philosophy and scholars since the advent of the written word between two and three thousand years ago, provides us with examples of highly intelligent human beings and the like of Socrates Aristotle Plato and Archimedes, in Europe and Confucius in Asia that prove the existence of high-level thinking and personal knowledge acquisition possible over two and half thousand year's thousand years previously.
A thorough grounding in basic skills will equip every ten year-old child the ability to continue their education without the necessity of Western secondary schools colleges and universities, we can definitely not wait to build up the infrastructure of education necessary to provide our Western type education on a universal basis, but with a little ingenuity we can develop the possibility of personal levels of achievement on a universal basis, outstripping the achievements of our present educational facilities. By providing access to all the differing sources of information available universally, we are Demonstrably dependent on information exchange, in achieving and maintaining our standard of living.
Universal primary education is achievable immediately, purely on a voluntary basis, we need no schools, very little special equipment, each of us, is as well-equipped to teach as we are to learn, the manner of the human animal is to pass on knowledge, from father to son, from mother to daughter, from friend to a friend. Individually we are all limited in knowledge; collectively knowledge acquisition is proceeding at rates never in previous history conceivable. Every discovery already achieved, every theoretical idea, every practical concept is available immediately to a worldwide audience, the practical distribution of knowledge is passed on from a one-to-one situation to a one to billions effortlessly, with the exception of basic skills, and the practical physical skills that are necessary to maintain and develop universally our standard of living.
Within the family’s who control the practical businesses necessary for us to combine our resources practical education is vital for both family owners and the executives of the multinational, National and local organisations private government or combinations of both, that are engaged in the processes of manufacturer of agriculture and global urban development and maintenance, in the job, and on the job, is where the vital one-to-one training takes place.
In just the same simple manner that a six-year-old child demonstrates to a five-year-old child how to use an Abacus, so is the process of education achievable, if we simply divide our day into learning and teaching, simply by doing and being taught, we move to demonstration and reinforcement within the same day, whatever we learn in the morning, we simply teach in the afternoon, neither age or ability would prevent us from personal development. We are all aware that it is more efficient to show a man how to fish then to feed him, but our modern developed world, encourages specialisation and exchange of goods, if we are able and allowed to build our own home, to grow and to cook our own food, to teach our own children, it would go to long way to prevent us in becoming the servants of necessity. In efficiency terms specialisation improves our standard of living, it will never disappear but let it always remain as our servant, we can insure that it remains our servant just a long as we have the skills to provide whatever we need should we need it.
Only universal primary education and the natural condition of one-to-one education will ever insure provision of the resources and the techniques and technology that are a pre-requisite of a Democratic healthy and adequately nourished peaceful world Society.
TOE BY TOE PROVES THE CONCEPT
Easy Learning - John Nicholson - 18-07-2005
This the right place for it to be i hope
SYSTEMATIC STEPS IN READING
STEP ONE
Learn to sing the alphabet in alphabet rhythm
STEP TWO
Learn to read the alphabet in alphabet sound
STEP THREE
Learn to read the alphabet in the alternate phonetic
Sounds
STEP FOUR
Learn to read syllables and letter combinations
STEP FIVE
Learn to read sentences out loud without fear of
being wrong in pronunciation
STEP SIX
Learn to read aloud and self correct from the
content of the sentence
STEP SEVEN
Learn to read for pleasure and profit, knowledge and
Satisfaction
READING FOR LIFE
A child stumbling over a simple three-letter word or a confident speed-reader are dependent on the same principles for decoding any word.
Knowledge of the letters and sounds.
Decoding any word is letter driven
Unless the reader knows the letters and the alternative sounds they represent, fluent reading will always be impossible.
Our subconscious mind works at the speed of light.
Every word in itself is an idea.
A child first creates a rhythmic memory, independent of sight, (vision). Then a picture and sound memory combination need to become as one.
When we see the letter the brain recognises it as a sound, and when we hear the letter the memory can identify the letter.
The human ability is to naturally convert words spoken or text into image. “Image in action.†(Imagination)
The speed with which the mind can decode any word, combining the ideas of the individual words within the larger idea of the sentence, is at the speed of light.
It means that we have to learn all the combinations of sound that individual letters and letter combinations are capable of making.
We are establishing our first vital vocal neural pathway in formal education.
It is no accident, that in the alphabet sounds used to express the different letters of the alphabet they are in the main common sounds used within speech, capable of being formed into a rhythmic chant in order to establish the first,(in this instance vocal memory) of the alphabet.
It is quite natural for a child to be able to remember easily the sounds of the rhythmic chant of the alphabet in what I term as alphabet sounds.
Over a very short time a whole classroom or an individual child soon establish naturally a perfect sound memory of the alphabet.
To establish whether the child understands/remembers the alphabet chant clearly, starting from random letters, a proficient child will automatically follow on with the next letter of the alphabet.
Systematic steps in reading.
Our first systematic step in teaching a child to read under any intelligent reading system has to be the vocal alphabet sound, learnt of by heart.
Step two. Even before the child fully grasps, the vocal memory of the alphabet the essential forerunner of learning the letter symbols easily, the six line layout of the alphabet can be used in conjunction with establishing the verbal memory of the letter, although these two stages may be carried out to some extent together, we must never lose sight of the fact that they are, completely separate systematic stages within the process of learning to read.
Nothing will replace the automatic vocal neural pathway, which gives the child the ability to follow instantly in the vocal alphabet locking in the picture of the letter in the visual memory, linking together forever the picture and the sound within the mind.
In natural learning we copy sounds, establishing a sound memory of the alphabet, we then use our sound memory, to remember (link) the picture of the sound.
Systematic step three
Once the child has established a neural pathway of vision and sound we are able to simplify and assist the memory of the child in automatically pronouncing and memorising the phonetic alternative purely by the use of pictures.
When a child sees a picture of an apple and the word apple the subconscious memory, starts to build, the natural subconscious memory, which is vital to us in establishing ability to read words we have never seen before.
Eventually every word becomes a picture.
That picture instantly holds meaning within someone hearing it or seeing it, listening to words within our natural language, we clearly establish a memory of the meaning, recognising a written word as a picture, means that we see a picture built up of letters where our subconscious automatic ability decodes the word instantly.
Once the brain as established initial recognition of a letter the subconscious memory starts to be built around it, the alternative sounds of letters in different combinations develops quite naturally with constant use, establishing automatic memory of sounds where pictures can be used to represent words is a good starting point for the third systematic step. The automatic memory of the picture of an ever growing memory, that involves thousands of common words where automatic decoding takes place instantly, creates the instant ability to make the sounds of letters in words the reader has not previously read or in some cases heard before.
The fourth systematic step
Learning to read syllables and letter combinations, are naturally linked together with the third step, just as the two first steps are heavily linked together so are the third and fourth steps.
It is relatively simple to use pictures to automatically trigger alternative sound awareness once a letter is clearly established in the original alphabet sound, small words and vital syllables are beginning to be recognised as pictures, regular association forms an instant combined neural link, between the picture and the sound of the word.
Initially the child has to process letter sounds until perfect picture memory of a word is instant, but thorough grounding in the first three steps develops the processing ability and once the processing is automatic (always taking place subconsciously INSTANTLY WITH WORDS WHERE THE PICTURE IS PERFECT) we are aware of it the moment a word is unfamiliar and mental or vocal pronunciation allow us to confirm it when we use it within our vocabulary.
Step five A great many things from the first four systematic steps can be practised and done together in a classroom situation but the next stage requires a listening partner, virtually every child benefits enormously the longer this stage goes on, and just as the first and second steps have a close relationship along with the third and fourth, so have the fifth and sixth systematic steps. The child will gradually move into the sixth stage as soon as it discovers more interesting material.
The seventh step is entirely within the hands of teachers and parents; if a constant supply of interesting material is unavailable the child will quickly discover more exiting and vastly less worthwhile pastimes.
Easy Learning - segarama - 18-07-2005
Hi John, I really enjoyed your explanation on reading. You certainly know full well that reading is extremely important and your priority is correct. You know learning to read is not easy for many many children. They are sometimes not given a fair deal by their peers and sometimes by the exaperation of the teacher. You sound like you have a great deal of patience. I enjoy reading your work.Be well my friend.
Best to you and P.S. age 65 is just a kid.
Rob
Easy Learning - geodob - 19-07-2005
Hi John,
I must express a concern, where it appears that you are outlining a 'Whole Word' approach. Where the progression from letter to word is assumed as natural?
Which overlooks the crucial area of Phoneme acquisition.
Which is the real basis of written literacy.
Without which, one is forced to remember whole words.
Phoneme awareness also enables one to decode unfamiliar words.
Phonemes need to be learnt directly.
For example, the mixed phoneme: 'ough' is a typical example, where its varied use in the words: though, thought, drought, cough, enough highlights the need for direct instruction of phonemes.
Yet I would add 'roots and prefixes' to this as well.
Geoff.
Easy Learning - Christina - 19-07-2005
Research suggests that a balanced approach, which makes use of both direct phonetic training and whole language-oriented literacy immersion, is the most effective way to approach reading. Different children need different doses of each, and lessons must be tailored to the needs of each individual child.
Easy Learning - John Nicholson - 20-07-2005
Good morning Geoff
Since I read your post yesterday, I have been trying to reply, luckily my first reply was aborted by the computer, I am making this reply with the use of a speech recognition system, one reason why I would appear verbal on any forum is the ability to say a lot with little typing effort, using the speech recognition system itself has taught me a great deal about reading and speaking.
I consider myself to be very fortunate, as a young child I was able to read easily, my primary school teacher was excellent, by the time was six years old I was able to read the children of the new Forest. Reading about Dr Orton I found out that fast readers are often bad at selling, I am still unable to retain the picture a word in a perfect spelling, Nor can I remember the left or right unless I tie it up with driving, my children have shown me how to use my hands to form an L, I told Tony Buzan of this and simplified it to winking with my left eye, this improves the speed at which I can remember left or right, sometimes.
Unfortunately my first child a son, the only son in three litters amounting to seven children, hit his first local school when formal teaching had just become out of fashion, I moved him from the state system at eight years old, and I removed him from private education at 10 years old, back into a local village school where my youngest daughter had been taught to read in one year, starting at four and a half and reading at 5 ½, at that point I took a more personal interest in my son's education, I found that even at ten years old, he could not read the word ending tion . Unfortunately my son had missed being taught by an old traditionalist school ma'am, her husband teaching the juniors was never in the same league. No child in that village ever failed to read, and many of the children from seriously disadvantaged homes were accepted into the best schools in the area for their secondary education.
My sons Son not my first grandson is now two a half years old, I shall not teach him how to read, I shall show him how to read.
First of all I shall sing with him, a six line alphabet song, and I shall use my cards, made for me by an English playing card manufacturer on the front they will have a large proportional low case letter written in black using two blue lines for perfect illustration of the letter, at the bottom of the card is a light green line representing the earth at the top of the right-hand side of the card is a yellow star, my grandson will sing that song with me, and together we shall lay out the six lines of the alphabet until he can do the singing and lay out the alphabet from a random pack. This will happen a long-time before he is four years old.
On the back of the cards there will be printed the six lines of the alphabet, and above those six lines will be printed the instructions. For my son and everybody’s son and daughter.
If I want to read
I must succeed
In knowing every letter and sound
So just for me
It has to be
My instructions are fool proof if followed correctly, step three itself is exactly what is wanted from children learning synthetic phonics. A child that knows the alphabet perfectly at four years in written and sound form will not fail to read, saturation and necessity the tools with which we learn to speak, will ensure that the child demands to be taught.
Here endeth the first lesson. Tongue in cheek of course.
My concept Maria Montessori`s concept and the concept of every thinking teacher. SHOW EM using the whole brain.
Easy Learning - John Nicholson - 11-08-2005
Hi thinkers
this blacksmith has returned to his anvil
Following on from my observations about my local butcher watching a television programme on channel FIVE, a series of programmes called extraordinary people and in particular a programme titled
“THE BOY WITH THE INCREDIBLE BRAIN†made for channel 5 by focus productions of
no.4 Leopold road, St. Andrews Park, Bristol, BS6 5BS.
Whose telephone number is 01179046292
I made contact with the producer, Martin Weitz, and was able to obtain from him a DVD of the programme, the boy with the incredible brain. Which I have studied in great detail, the programme features a young man from the south of England, Daniel Paul Tammet.
Daniels abilities in mathematics are extraordinary apparently he was considered slightly autistic as a young child and also suffered from mild epilepsy. However he has developed as an extraordinary young man, with out any of the disabilities sometimes associated with extraordinary ability. He is truly a savant within the very best meaning of the term.
Both English and American experts in mathematics and psychology examined his abilities in great detail, and he was not found wanting in any department. His ability to learn a language within a week was demonstrated by a trip to Iceland where he was able to master the Icelandic language adequately within one week. He has added a further language to the ones he understands already.
Studying Daniel and trying to assess why he is so capable will engage the attention of numerous specialists in psychology and brain research for years to come.
My own reasoned assessment of Daniel is that various parts and abilities of the brain have been short circuited enabling him to perform miraculous feats of mental ability for instance he was able to relate for over five hours a sum involving twenty two thousand five hundred and fourteen decimal places flawlessly.
Compare this ability with your own ability as regards first of all doing a mental sum and then remembering even a small amount of numbers
The programme went on to contain demonstration shots of Japanese children learning mathematics, on a Japanese abacus, (Soroban). In a specialist Japanese primary school aimed purely at producing children with extraordinary mathematical ability. Children start at four years of age learning mathematics on the abacus, and continue abacus lessons until they are approximately eleven years old. Where they are able then to produce the most extraordinary exhibitions of multiplication and division of large sums purely within their head, they are visualising the process’s they would be using, as if they were using the abacus.
However the same mental ability to visualise processing is quickly built up with in the mind of a very young child (say four years of age). Using my three-strand abacus enabling the child to relate easily to using written numbers and written numerals to quickly achieve very able results in mental arithmetic. In my opinion the training that a Japanese child receives produces extraordinary results but the time and effort that are required in training the mind to these levels of ability will substantially reduce the time available for the child to learn many other vital pieces of information.
The fact is that we have now a very universal mathematic ability in so much as the entire world is now using only ten symbols representing numerals, in any language through out the developed or partially developed world, numbers are understood universally. Using any abacus provides a child with a moving map of numbers, why should we in the united kingdom, and the English speaking world generally even attempt to teach mathematics without the benefit of a tool which is at least five thousand years old and infact probably much older, adding the use of the abacus to the ten simple symbols for numbers provides any child of normal health with outstanding mathematic ability. Provided they are shown adequately how to use it. We need do more than to show one child properly in order that they may in turn show another.
http://uk.altavista.com/web/results?itag=ody&q=Daniel+Paul+Tammet.&kgs=1&kls=0
Easy Learning - John Nicholson - 13-08-2005
:p Research suggests that a balanced approach, which makes use of both direct phonetic training and whole language-oriented literacy immersion, is the most effective way to approach reading. Different children need different doses of each, and lessons must be tailored to the needs of each individual child.
[COLOR=Red]hi geodob and anyone else intrested in teaching reading. the oecd expert defended my stance in reading by drawing atention that differnt doses of differing tecniques are useful in teaching reading.
i am very much aware of this my explicit step by step recomendations are directly aimed at parents teaching their own children i believe that the reception classes in any infant school are dealing with parents with a broad range of reading ability and simple awareness and provision of a simple code standard code practise will assist in providing the prerequisit of synthetic phonics which apears to be gathering government aproval which i am sure many of you will aplaud.
in my early research on how we learn to read i made an observation for my self that "eventually every word becomes a picture". yesterday i was showing a five year old child how to use a written in words abacus. asking him to read him self the first word on the right hand collumn he recognised the first two letters and said obviously "on". almost imperseptibly he will recognise the picture of the word one. there in lies the proof of my erlier observation.
Easy Learning - geodob - 14-08-2005
Hi John,
I must also mention a third factor in relation to reading acquisition, which I suggest is of major importance.
At the age of 9, I had a 'life changing event'?
My Teacher gave me 2 pages of 'Latin/ Greek/ French- Roots/Prefixes and Suffixes'.
Which I immediately set about memorising!
Within 2 weeks, I was overjoyed to find that I could read Dad's newspaper after he'd finished with it! I could understand every word!
Knowing these Roots and Prefixes, meant that I could immediately 'unlock' most unfamiliar words. I could 'build' words.
The crucial factor being that they have 'meaning', as opposed to Phonemes which are simply sounds.
From that point, unfamiliar words became a challenge to decode?
Though most often, children aren't given these 'keys' to unlock language, unfortunately. Of which I've lobbied 2 local Teacher Training Institutions, so far.
Notably, they also provide an explanation for many phonemic contradictions.
As well as a shortcut device for memory recall of spelling when writing.
Anyway, this is something that I'm personally lobbying for?
Geoff.
Easy Learning - John Nicholson - 15-08-2005
it has to be step nine great stuff best regards john
Easy Learning - John Nicholson - 18-08-2005
Geoff it has to be step nine great stuff best regards john.
One idea begets another.
THE FACT WE ARE HERE MEANS THAT WE ARE THINKING WITHER WE LIKE IT OR NOT. (DESCARTES)(tother way round)
" sum ergo cogito"
At the head of any list of vital thinkers must come Socrates with the benefit of two thousand four hundred and three years of further information none will ever equal Socrates.
SO IF THE STATE OF HUMANNESS MEANS WE ARE BLESSED WITH THOUGHT
LET THAT THOUGHT BE POSITIVE
A simple observation led me here, "the possibilities within the abacus to teach any child"
LET THE OUTCOME OF THESE PAGES BE POSITIVE
IF WE AS HUMAN BEINGS FAIL TO COLLECTIVELY LEARN THE LESSONS OF OUR OWN HISTORY THEN IT IS CERTAIN THAT WE HAVE NO FUTURE (certainly any future that’s worth having)
So I give you again my quote
THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION
Seven years thinking about thinking
The essence of education
"The central purpose of education is to allow us to understand the world we live-in and to think about our personal and collective actions in order to enhance them."
Noam Chomsky the American linguist makes the point that a human being with the capacity of a limited number of words can produce and regularly clearly do so, an unlimited number of sentences.
I believe that the human ability of speech is mans best demonstration of intelligence, words are assembled and spoken as quickly as ideas are conceived, no sooner we are aware of an idea within our brain then we can have spoken it, we think at the speed of light and obviously speak at the speed of sound, you can work out the difference for yourself.
Marie Montessori, the mother of intelligent education, harnessed the inbuilt ability of children to learn by watching, seeing and doing.
I believe you taught your child to speak, the miracle of the ability to speak was leant naturally, it was so easy for you, and you did not even realize that you were doing it. So giving rise to my statement " the imperceptible learning process" we have only three gears, learning, thinking, teaching.
We are either listening and seeing, which is the learning gear, or we are talking which is the teaching gear, or we are thinking, however unintelligent we may consider ourselves to be unless we are speaking or learning we are thinking. I prove this to you, simply by telling you to consider what is happening to you when you are asleep, your body is resting and your thinking ability is in freewheel, yes you are dreaming. I dream of a better world, that is the exciting thing about education.
Children can teach children, one-to-one teaching and learning is the basis of our CIVILIZATION
John Nicholson.
Easy Learning - segarama - 18-08-2005
John Nicholson Wrote:Geoff it has to be step nine great stuff best regards john.
One idea begets another.
THE FACT WE ARE HERE MEANS THAT WE ARE THINKING WITHER WE LIKE IT OR NOT. (DESCARTES)
At the head of any list of vital thinkers must come Socrates with the benefit of two thousand four hundred and three years of further information none will ever equal Socrates.
SO IF THE STATE OF HUMANNESS MEANS WE ARE BLESSED WITH THOUGHT
LET THAT THOUGHT BE POSITIVE
A simple observation led me here, "the possibilities within the abacus to teach any child"
LET THE OUTCOME OF THESE PAGES BE POSITIVE
IF WE AS HUMAN BEINGS FAIL TO COLLECTIVELY LEARN THE LESSONS OF OUR OWN HISTORY THEN IT IS CERTAIN THAT WE HAVE NO FUTURE (certainly any future that’s worth having)
So I give you again my quote
THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION
Seven years thinking about thinking
The essence of education
"The central purpose of education is to allow us to understand the world we live-in and to think about our personal and collective actions in order to enhance them."
Noam Chomsky the American linguist makes the point that a human being with the capacity of a limited number of words can produce and regularly clearly do so, an unlimited number of sentences.
I believe that the human ability of speech is mans best demonstration of intelligence, words are assembled and spoken as quickly as ideas are conceived, no sooner we are aware of an idea within our brain then we can have spoken it, we think at the speed of light and obviously speak at the speed of sound, you can work out the difference for yourself.
Marie Montessori, the mother of intelligent education, harnessed the inbuilt ability of children to learn by watching, seeing and doing.
I believe you taught your child to speak, the miracle of the ability to speak was leant naturally, it was so easy for you, and you did not even realize that you were doing it. So giving rise to my statement " the imperceptible learning process" we have only three gears, learning, thinking, teaching.
We are either listening and seeing, which is the learning gear, or we are talking which is the teaching gear, or we are thinking, however unintelligent we may consider ourselves to be unless we are speaking or learning we are thinking. I prove this to you, simply by telling you to consider what is happening to you when you are asleep, your body is resting and your thinking ability is in freewheel, yes you are dreaming. I dream of a better world, that is the exciting thing about education.
Children can teach children, one-to-one teaching and learning is the basis of our CIVILIZATION
John Nicholson.
Hi John...
I agree that learning, thinking and teaching are very important..they are so important that books upon books have been written on each of the three. We are in a period where the emphasis is on learning. But to learn you must think etc.
Sleep we find is more important that ever thought. Your brain tends to bring together your daily thoughts and adds to learning and memory.
We certainly are looking for something good in our prospective future when it comes to learning. I have a positive attitude regarding our emphasis on learning.
Be well,
Rob
Easy Learning - John Nicholson - 21-08-2005
Hi Rob
unfortunately for others I rarely suffer a deficit of words but as always words are all we have, john Locke told me that each word was an idea in itself,
Socrates told me to put the ideas together, and Descartes insisted on it.
So lest I ever forget.
The subconscious brain works far faster then we can think.
PROVEN BY DECODING WORDS
the first letter of every word is the ignition key and along with the second letter they provide us with the sound map to decoding, the eyesight comprehension working at the speed of light.
ALONG SIDE THIS BRAIN FUNCTION THERE IS A SUBCONSCIOUS SEARCH FOR A SUITABLE WORD FROM OUR (vast subconscious dictionary)
and so we build a memory bank where each word becomes a picture in itself,
a picture (an idea which sound turns in to image) where we see image in action linking the meaning of words into a greater sense.
my at ro shus speling as know been x plain d to me by sum 1 teaching
neuro lingwistic spelling
dus any on u no owt about it.
I can c now that i youse sound 2 spell with rther then pictures
obviously I am geared to sound but arnt we all hence the few ture is texting
so tis even more vital as our writain langwidge divides into two forms that we realise this
sacred fact
natural evolution taught us to speak effortlessly over may be a million years
we have had symbols for writing words for only three thousand years,
symbols for numbers universally for five hundred years.
We cannot wait another million years to evolve the ability to read and count without symbol awareness.
CLEARLY SYMBOL AWARENESS IS THE REASONABILITY OF THE CHILDS PARENTS
WHERE THE PARENTS FAIL TO ESTABLISH SYMBOL AWARENESS THE STATE HAS TO DO IT FOR THEM.
MY WRITING IN WORDS AND NUMERALS ABACUS WILL ACHIEVE THIS FOR THE STATE OR PARENTS EASILY,
SINGING THE ALPHABET HAS ESTABLISHED AN EFFECTIVE SOUND MEMORY OF THE ALPHABET EVER SINCE WE HAD AN ALPHABET
MY CARDS WILL EASILY ESTABLISH A NEURAL LINK BETWEEN EASILY LEARNED RHYTHM AND DIFFICULT TO REMEMBER SYMBOLS,
how the Hades our schools would cope with establishing 5000 pictures in Chinese before we could start to read, who knows
until we are born with symbols imprinted within our brains we better follow some of John Locke’s recommendations.
A small observation, I watched brother Jacks " is this as good as it gets " film last night
got far more from it as a second viewing years later,
neuro related teaching film will replace most education but we will always need those thirty six symbols.
"Tis the duty of the PARENT"
schools have to be blunt TELL it like it is
Easy Learning - John Nicholson - 15-09-2005
To Geoff and Rob thanks for the good wishes
NOW FOR THE RUB
You are both professional educators apart from my friend Winston Hagston an emeritus professor of theoretical physics who alongside myself has trailed around east Yorkshire schools trying to alert them to the powers of the abacus as an effective teaching tool, I no of know of know anyone else who is likely to care about expedient effective education at primary school level, (with the exception of every mother of every child) except the two of you. Rob you have taught in primary schools in America and in Africa Malawi. Geoff you are operating in Australia. At the great age of 65 there is an urgency for me to prove openly my individual research on reception class children 4 to 6, I am sure you would find it both interesting to encourage and oversee trials in local primary schools in America Australia and Malawi. At my own expense I would make available to you one hundred abacus at each location and of course the reading cards.
I believe early working in mathematics has a beneficial effect on all children first by pride in achievement and second in activating areas of the brain associated with reading nothing much in this world works in isolation.
Please spend a few moments of your lives having a look around my website
At http://www.abacusandalphabet.com/
Easy Learning - segarama - 15-09-2005
Hi John....Happy Birthday again! I read your website and it looks very interesting.....How much do they cost? I did not see prices...Have they been tested on children with special needs?Best to you,
Save me some ice cream and cake..
Rob
Easy Learning - John Nicholson - 16-09-2005
ROB
The thing will ensure understanding if we can train adults as quickly as we can train children with it.
I need to make a clear price statement it must be low.
I intend to alter the website showing what I think is needed by a parent trying to teach their own child to read and count.
The list will be.
One abacus written in English with
temporary stickers, of numerals and some appropriate languages on it.
One set of low case reading cards. Designed to be a Childs first unmistakeable symbol of the 26 letters in the English alphabet.
With my layout of the alphabet song, the six line rhythmic alphabet.
ALONG WITH MY GUARANTEE OF A FULL REFUND IF ANY CHILD FAILS TO RECKOGNISE ANY LETTER AFTER THE PARENTS HAVE SHOWN IT THE LAYOUT AND SUNG THE ALPHABET A THOUSAND TIMES.
One DVD showing the parent, teacher or Einstein what to do and how to do it.
One book with pictures showing how to start using an abacus, to explain the vital steps in imprinting (LIFE LONG) neural pathways that are being created by the repetitious use of
"THE ABACUS AND THE ALPHABET"
Let us use the knowledge we already have.
After discovering the properties of the Abacus, and contemplating and researching how we learn everything that we do, you could say that I have become a constructionist as regards the human ability to construct layers of knowledge as we progress’s through life. For instance no one appears to teach us how to speak, but virtually every healthy human learns to speak, through their ability to copy, we are surrounded with speech, we learn to speak through two phenomena’s saturation and necessity, between the ages of approximately one and a half years to two and half years of age the majority of us learn to speak. Maria Montessori working with children who were considered to be mentally ill, discovered that children learn by doing things, once this concept was fully understood by Maria Montessori she spent the rest of life developing real life illustrations in order to teach efficiently. Her personal contribution towards education will never be equalled.
Looking closely at what we consider to be the frontier’s of education, as it is presently perceived, the real problems are associated with ensuring universal primary education, once a young child is able to read count and think, education at every level is available to it. Western Europe and North America within the last two hundred years have embraced universal education, and through the process of dynamic technical development, much of it created by the necessity to fight two world wars during the last century, have achieved a standard of living the envy of the rest the world, with the exception of Japan. Close examination of the written works of philosophy and scholars since the advent of the written word between two and three thousand years ago, provides us with examples of highly intelligent human beings and the like of Socrates Aristotle Plato and Archimedes, in Europe and Confucius in Asia that prove the existence of high-level thinking and personal knowledge acquisition possible over two and half thousand year's thousand years previously.
A thorough grounding in basic skills will equip every ten year-old child the ability to continue their education without the necessity of Western secondary schools colleges and universities, we can definitely not wait to build up the infrastructure of education necessary to provide our Western type education on a universal basis, but with a little ingenuity we can develop the possibility of personal levels of achievement on a universal basis, outstripping the achievements of our present educational facilities. By providing access to all the differing sources of information available universally, we are Demonstrably dependent on information exchange, in achieving and maintaining our standard of living.
Universal primary education is achievable immediately, purely on a voluntary basis, we need no schools, very little special equipment, each of us, is as well-equipped to teach as we are to learn, the manner of the human animal is to pass on knowledge, from father to son, from mother to daughter, from friend to a friend. Individually we are all limited in knowledge; collectively knowledge acquisition is proceeding at rates never in previous history conceivable. Every discovery already achieved, every theoretical idea, every practical concept is available immediately to a worldwide audience, the practical distribution of knowledge is passed on from a one-to-one situation to a one to billions effortlessly,
"with the exception of basic skills, and the practical physical skills that are necessary to maintain and develop universally our standard of living."
Within the family’s who control the practical businesses necessary for us to combine our resources practical education is vital for both family owners and the executives of the multinational, National and local organisations private government or combinations of both, that are engaged in the processes of manufacturer of agriculture and global urban development and maintenance, in the job, and on the job, is where the vital one-to-one training takes place.
In just the same simple manner that a six-year-old child demonstrates to a five-year-old child how to use an Abacus, so is the process of education achievable, if we simply divide our day into learning and teaching, simply by doing and being taught, we move to demonstration and reinforcement within the same day, whatever we learn in the morning, we simply teach in the afternoon, neither age or ability would prevent us from personal development. We are all aware that it is more efficient to show a man how to fish then to feed him, but our modern developed world, encourages specialisation and exchange of goods, if we are able and allowed to build our own home, to grow and to cook our own food, to teach our own children, it would go to long way to prevent us in becoming the servants of necessity. In efficiency terms specialisation improves our standard of living, it will never disappear but let it always remain as our servant, we can insure that it remains our servant just a long as we have the skills to provide whatever we need should we need it.
Only universal primary education and the natural condition of one-to-one education will ever insure provision of the resources and the techniques and technology that are a pre-requisite of a Democratic healthy and adequately nourished peaceful world Society.
WOULD YOU GIVE UP A YEAR OF YOUR LIFE TO TEACH IN THE THIRD WORLD
THE GUARANTEE WOULD BE THAT THE WORLD WOULD TEACH YOU FAR MORE THEN YOU WOULD TEACH IT
. jn for children teaching children.
Easy Learning - TheSorobanSchool - 25-07-2006
We have been teaching Soroban (the japanese abacus) in New York for the past 30 years. Each of our students will tell you that Soroban is not only an easy way to learn math, it is also a great way to develop your ability to think quicky and accurately.
The western world teaches "Addition" as a memorization exercise. You simply recall the sum of two numbers as a fact. It's kind of strange since addition is really a process.
Anyway, we've been volunteering at a local elementary school for several years now. This past year, we finally did a little research (for internal use) into how effective our program can be in developing our students' ability to perform basic calculations. The results of our class were far superior to the non-Soroban classes. If you'd like a copy of our report, I'd be happy to e-mail it to you.
If anybody in the New York area would be interested in bringing Soroban into their schools, we'd be happy to assist you in any way possible.