Experts argue the effects of popular arithmetic courses
Ida Indawati Khouw, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
How long do you need to memorize 30 digits and then count them backwards? Perhaps a couple of minutes.
Is that still too easy for you?
Then try to add, multiply and divide certain long-digit numbers within seconds. For sure, the challenge can only be solved by few people.
But for Joshua, Victor and Felix -- aged between just eight and 10 years old -- these tasks are peanuts.
The trio amazed audiences with their knowledge during a recent seminar on brain mapping.
"I just imagine the numbers in the form of an abacus. That's the key to enable me to solve the problems fast," said Joshua, a student of Dian Harapan Elementary School in Karawaci, Tangerang.
These children are not geniuses but gained their skills through hard work after joining a series of courses on brain improvement.
Look at Joshua's daily activities for example. His school starts at 7.00 a.m. and finishes at 3.00 p.m. but he usually gets home at 7.00 p.m. after completing various additional lessons -- music and English -- and also the newly-established brain power training.
"It's all his request. I never ask him to do so. He also joins physics and chemistry lessons every Wednesday although he hasn't studied them at school," mother Lily said, adding she has to pay Rp 1 million (US$97) monthly fee for the all his extra lessons.
Joshua admitted he enjoyed all the lessons and was not interested in playing with other children.
"I want to become a scientist," said the fifth-grade student.
It is no wonder many parents were amazed with Joshua's skills, especially in mathematics and other sciences, and no wonder course centers, specializing in the subjects, have always been packed with prospective "customers".
The course centers, which have mushroomed in the last four years, promise have been warmly welcomed by parents.
It is very easy to find the centers as staff pass our brochures on Jakarta streets.
The course names include Kumon, Sakamoto and Sempoa (Chinese abacus), which is also popularly known as mental arithmetic.
It is just as easy for someone to obtain the establishment license.
"So far we have released between 400 and 500 licenses for sempoa courses in Jakarta, Medan (North Sumatra), Padang (West Sumatra), Surakarta (Central Java) and Yogyakarta. They only have to pay Rp 5 million fee and join series of training seminars before we issue the license," said Suwendy from PT Sumber Ilmu Pengetahuan, one of the companies selling licenses for courses on the Sempoa and Sakamoto methods of math problem solving.
"The methods aim to help children overcome their math phobia," he said.
In the beginning, the Sempoa method, mainly for children from kindergarten to 12 years old, uses the Chinese abacus for calculations but then children must imagine the abacus in their mind during the problem solving.
"By imagining the abacus, they can calculate much faster. That's why we call it mental arithmetic. It has been proven that children are faster than a calculator," said Alexander Taslim from the Super Brain course center.
He said children must join the course for about two years to master the method. "Thus children will be able to compute millions in a short time."
But fast counting is not enough to be a math master.
"They must join courses on another methods such as Sakamoto or Kumon systems to enable them to really master math," Alexander said, referring to two methods named after Japanese founders Hideo Sakamoto and the late Toru Kumon.
Sakamoto's method provides students with a systematic technique of analyzing word problems and helps them solve questions in a logical way.
The Kumon method focuses more on daily practice using a series of worksheets.
What do educators say about the trend?
Teacher Francisca Dwi Sulistiani said teaching mental arithmetic was only proper for elementary students at fourth grade and up as they started to understand the arithmetic concepts.
"I have seen the method used even on kindergarten students. Math is very abstract, full of symbols that we must introduce to children through something concrete, either through stories or objects," she said.
Francisca, a former consultant for St. Ursula Elementary School in Central Jakarta, worried that if children in early age were drilled with something abstract, they would have difficulties learning math concepts.
On the other hand, noted psychologist Seto Mulyadi praised the mental arithmetic methods as it allowed children to use their imagination during the calculation process.
"It means the method stimulates the right halve of the brain. But the mentors must teach it properly. They must always remember that it's very important to make children happy in learning the method, for instance through playing. Don't make it too formal," he said.
Seto called on teachers to make children love to learn instead of creating clever students. "In principle all the methods are good as long as children can see the learning process as something joyful."