Focus on Students’ Development
Before becoming a Kumon instructor, my child has studied in Kumon for two years. At that time, my child’s class teacher opened a Kumon education center. After talking to the class teacher and getting to know what Kumon is, I like Kumon’s education mission very much; then I have my child enrolled. As my child studied more than one subject in Kumon, I know several Kumon instructors. Their professionalism and spirit have been affecting me. I have searched for many education organisations before. There are modern, passionate ones, but they are relatively superficial to me. After knowing about Kumon, I think Kumon instructors treasure every student. They put themselves in students’ shoes and make the right study plan for them. They also report students’ study situation to their parents regularly in every learning stage. The longer I am in contact with Kumon instructors, the more I want to pursue this career.
Since I started this career, I have been concerned about every student and I treat them as my own children. I handle problems from the perspective of a parent. Many parents said that I am a good instructor but I do not know what I am good at. I guess it may be that I will not intend to do something just to make the students stay here. Some students have studied here for two or three years. Their parents trust me very much. When their children need to promote or transfer to another school, they may come to me and ask me for opinions like, “Is this school good?”, “Which school should I apply in order to develop my child’s abilities?”, “Instructor, do you have any suggestions?” I hope that I can help parents make their choices and I think that it is something that will not happen in other education organisations.
Learning Habits and Attitude towards Life are Important
What I value the most is students’ habits. A good learning habit determines how far a student can go. Attitude towards life is also critical and it is something that I focus on. As I observed, some children are clever but they quitted Kumon. The reason is that their parents are too obedient to their children; some even spoiled their children. Those parents think that children should not continue to study once they feel tired. However, no matter when you learn, you must first get through a boring stage. If you cannot overcome that, you cannot experience the real fun of learning.
Taking learning the piano as an example, it is very boring to play the practice song. You need to go all over again when you make any slight mistakes. This kind of repetitive exercise makes many children unwilling to carry on. But you must make them carry on. You can make your children keep on playing the piano. Then why is it not possible for mathematics and English? When children learn practice songs like Chopin, they will suddenly love music. Therefore, like learning math, if children are able to reach junior secondary school math or even high-school math, they will not want to give up.
Finding My Values in Fulfilled Life
After becoming a Kumon instructor, I started to feel the value. For example, in the first batch of students, ten are my friends’ children. Now I have several hundred subject enrolments. I think I have helped a lot of people. Many parents feel grateful for every one of us.
Another reward is that I feel fulfilled. I always think about my students, their family conditions, their study situation, how to help them, what level should he move on to, how to plan ahead for them, how to communicate with their parents. I find this kind of life very meaningful.
