Mastering Arithmetic and Singapore - What's the Connection?

The name Singapore derives from two Malay words meaning "lion city." So what's the connection between this small South-East Asian country of four million and arithmetic mastery? Well for one, the Singaporean mentality toward arithmetic mastery as the stepping stone to higher mathematics is as well ingrained in their culture as apple pie and baseball is in ours. Indeed their lion-like ferocity toward taking no prisoners in insuring that their children master the mathematical basics of arithmetic--to wit, multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction--is the main reason that their country serves as a model in educational excellence, particularly in the mathematical and scientific fields.

The problems in education in the United States have been much ballyhooed in newspapers, magazines, and journals. Although educational reform has always been a hot topic among school administrators, consistency and strict adherence to traditional methods in education are key linchpins to success if we judge by the model held forth by the "lion city" of Singapore. For in Singapore--a country which strongly rejects the incorporation of external teaching methods and programs--the focus is on rote methods and mastery of the basics. The average student in Singapore will spend substantial time mastering the fundamentals of arithmetic and arithmetic operations, and then be ready for a plunge into algebra by seventh grade. Compare this to the United States model in which students often meander through a fuzzy haze of mathematical instruction, and don't get a peek into the world of algebra until first year of high school.

Granted. The United States can boast to have some of the best and brightest in the world. The students who excel here can compete with the best around the globe. However, this tends to be the exception rather than the rule. With three hundred million of us versus four million Singaporeans, it would seem probabilistically certain that our "math geniuses" would strictly outnumber theirs. Imagine the outnumbering if we got back to a focus on mastery of the basics, much like the Singaporean model, and led our students naturally into progressively more difficult branches of mathematics.

The above homily encapsulates a message I've been preaching so long that I sometimes feel like I'm blowing in the wind. Indeed, the message forms the core of my writings and the teachings within my math ebooks. Parents, educators, teachers, administrators. It's not about spreading my methods and making me better known. It's about steering our children toward the pinnacle they so rightly deserve to reach and converting our country into a "lion city" as well.

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