Back to index of justice, politics, and education pages by Donald Sauter.

. . . like a deer in the middle of a ring of bowmen.

If you got here directly from a web search, I'm sure a better starting point would be my main Kumon page. At the appropriate spot, it explains the reason for this page. Otherwise, without further ado . . .

Here's a statement from Kumon's promotional material:

All Kumon Instructors share a passion for education and an earnest desire to help children succeed. They will invariably apply these along with their talent and training in the Kumon Method to make the most constructive contribution possible to your child's future.

Hey, they're talking about me! I gave every student top-quality one-on-one attention on every center visit in order to pull them through the study material as fast as possible and burn it in as deep as possible. But, as they say, no good deed goes unpunished. Kumon is a self-study program - and it seems they intend to keep it that way.

I mentioned at the beginning that there was definite friction between me and Kumon from the start. We pick up the story about a year into my center operation, when the Area Development Manager came out to observe my center in action.

Everything went perfectly that day.

Some weeks later I received a letter. That letter is fully incorporated in my response below, addressed to the Branch Manager.

From: me
To: Min Woo, Washington D.C. Branch Manager
Date: Mar 25 2004

As you know, I received a letter from Emily Kim following up her 
visit to my Dover Kumon center in January.  The two main messages 
in Emily's letter, seemingly in contradiction with each other, 
are that, 1) I must drastically reduce the amount of individual 
attention I give each student, and 2) students must spend more 
time in my center.  Also running through the letter is a profound 
confusion between "Kumon method" and center routine.  But to 
minimize the risk of responding to an inaccurate or oversimplified 
distillation, I will respond to the original letter point by 
point as necessary below.   

Emily Kim wrote: 

> Thank you for accommodating me during my visit to your 
> center on January 24, 2005.  
> 
> Your center looked professional and well organized.  I was 
> very impressed with how you involved the students in the lesson 
> planning.  The students really seem to enjoy working with you.  
> The center provides a good study environment.  
> 
> You are to be commended for increasing your product knowledge 
> by completing the math worksheets and product knowledge 
> your recent participation of Follow-Up and CMS2 training.  

As discussed with Emily on her visit and other occasions, my 
dedication is manifested by far more than just doing the 
worksheets.  That is the tip of an iceberg.  As I do the 
worksheets, I try to put myself in the position of a student 
seeing the material for the first time.  I also continually ask 
myself, "What would I say if a student came to me asking for help 
on this problem?"  That, combined with careful grading of my 
worksheets; counting up the number of problems in each set; 
converting the completed worksheets into an answer book for my 
use; generating a set of clear notes to myself; and creating a 
detailed  index to the material in a level, adds up to an 
investment in time that I would estimate at about four or five 
times that needed just to do the worksheets.  Kumon, by the way, 
would serve itself well by involving me in efforts to improve the 
learning material.  

> There are some areas of concern which I would like to 
> address with you.  I noticed that you are not assigning students 
> class work.  Rather, their time spent at the center is to review 
> corrections one-on-one with you.  From our conversations, you 
> mentioned, the parents fell into this pattern and it has been 
> working for your center.  Please keep in mind how the Kumon 
> program was designed to work.  Students come to the center twice 
> a week [a reference to most of my students being once-a-week. DS] 
> and spend about 30 minutes per subject completing class 
> work in the center.  

Kumon literature talks about 10- to 20-minute assignments each day.  
All centers have some percentage of once-a-week students.  This 
is the preference of many parents.  You know that there are 
centers where no option is given - all students are once-a-week.  
Kumon correspondence students never come to a center, and I 
understand that certain branch personnel carry correspondence 
students.  The point is, Kumon works fine no matter where the 
student actually sits down to do his Kumon worksheets.  

> After completing the class work, they are to have it graded, then 
> make necessary corrections.  By having the student complete class 
> work in the center, it allows the Instructor to observe how they 
> are doing.  This also provides an opportunity to assist students 
> with new concepts.  Careless mistakes can be corrected and 
> eliminated in the center.  Through this, students will reduce the 
> mistakes on their homework, allowing them to progress much 
> faster.  

I observe students correct the errors they made in their most 
recent assignment.  If there are no errors, or the errors are 
corrected quickly, I will generally have the student do a few 
problems from his upcoming assignment.  Emily observed my 
technique of having a student "think out loud" as he solves a 
problem, something that allows me to see right inside his head, 
and something that is not feasible in a classroom-type setting.  
Working side-by-side with a student for 15 minutes or more at 
every center visit surely puts me in a better position than other 
Kumon instructors "to observe how they are doing."  

> Another reason for having students complete class work in the 
> center is that the time recorded at home may not be accurate.  
> When the students complete class work in the center, the 
> Instructor will know if the time and accuracy recorded at home 
> is precise.  

I suppose an instructor could zero in on one student at a time to 
double-check his completion time.  There would be no way to 
double-check a whole roomful of students starting and stopping at 
different times.  Surely there are no instructors who waste their 
valuable time trying.  

Having my own completion times for all the sets [a "set" is a 
packet of 10 worksheets] gives me a leg up over other Kumon 
instructors in checking the reasonableness of completion times.  
All instructors see occasional completion times that don't seem 
plausible.  ("Is this for the whole set - or just the first 
half???")  I have noted completely impossible completion times 
entered in the database for the Willowbrook center, which was 
used in Kumon's follow-up training.  Fortunately, the Kumon 
method is robust enough to handle a few perplexing completion 
times here and there.  

The bigger point is, there's no reason to believe that any of my 
Kumon parents and students are engaged in a conspiracy to cheat on 
the grading and timing of the assignments.  Why would anyone pay 
$80 a month to do that?  In any case, I will find out quickly on 
any center visit how well the student knows the material. 

> For example, with Rachel (a math student in level E) you 
> reviewed one problem with her.  

Generally speaking, that's one more problem per visit reviewed 
with an instructor than you would observe at any other center.  
Don't forget, as part of my training I was required to observe 
the operation of several Kumon centers.  Also, Emily fails to 
mention that I had Rachel jump ahead to solve one or more 
problems coming up in her assignments.  

> She only spent 13 minutes in center.  

If Emily's timing is accurate, that's about 13 more minutes of 
individual attention than a student gets per visit in any other 
center.  

> If she was assigned class work, she could have completed a set in 
> class.  Remember, students are expected to spend about 30 minutes 
> per subject in the center.  You must maximize the time she spends 
> in the center.  

Rachel had done her assigned Kumon work for that day.  Whether or 
not she completed a given set that day is not a concern.  For the 
record, there are only six sets in Level E [nominally fifth grade] 
that I completed in under 30 minutes.  

> Another student I observed was Josh, who was in math level A 
> [first grade].  He spent only 7 minutes at the center.  You were 
> trying to think of things for him to do and ended up orally 
> practicing "14-9" and "10-2" and having him complete the 
> incomplete sets.  

Emily's timing of 7 minutes sounds even more suspect.  I have 
never processed a student in 7 minutes.  When I started, I had 
10-minute slots for each student - and I found out very quickly 
I couldn't do what I wanted to do in ten minutes.  On this day 
Emily observed me work with 6 students for two hours without a 
pause.  That averages out to 20 minutes per student, so someone 
else must have gotten 41 minutes to make up for Josh and Rachel's 
stolen time.  I remember glancing at my clock occasionally and 
being pleasantly surprised at how smoothly and on-schedule 
everything was proceeding.  

I hope there's nothing wrong with oral practice and completing 
incomplete sets.  I also remember having a good time with Josh 
that day, tricking him into doing algebra.  

> Again, you want to maximize his time spent at the center.  For 
> example, he could have completed 5 pages, which should take no 
> more than 10 minutes and still have time to discuss with you if 
> the worksheet was too hard or too easy.  In addition, by having 
> him complete a set in class, you would be able to observe how he 
> completes the worksheets.  Is his pencil constantly moving?  Is 
> he easily distracted?  Is he using his fingers?  These are some 
> of the observations you can observe to help lesson plan for the 
> students.  

I know from personal observations, talking with Josh's mother, 
talking with Josh's sister, and talking with Josh himself, how 
easily he gets "stressed out."  I've observed him fly through a 
worksheet and a half and then get hung up and break down on one 
problem, ruining his whole time.  All I can do is my best to put 
him at his ease doing Kumon.  

> You also schedule the students so that you can provide one-
> on-one attention.  

That is a nice byproduct.  I schedule students so that I will not 
need assistants.  

> Please keep in mind the Kumon method.  The Kumon program is not a 
> one-on-one tutoring service.  We want the students to become 
> independent learners.  By scheduling the students, the students 
> will know that there will be an Instructor to help them and they 
> will not try to solve a problem on their own.  

I have never observed anything like this.  The Kumon Method has a 
built-in incentive: if you do it well, you don't have to do it 
again.  

> We want students to be active learners and not passive learners.  
> Scheduling only fosters a one-on-one service to the students.  I 
> know we share the same vision in fostering independent learners.  
> You would agree, if children are not given the chance to make 
> mistake or figure things out on their own, they would not become 
> independent thinkers.  

My students have made plenty of mistakes.  

> The end goal of the Kumon program is to promote the development 
> of self-reliant, capable students who are able to resolve 
> problems independently.  

That's a bit flowery for me.  My goal is to strengthen a student's 
math and reading skills as much as possible during the time I have 
to work with him.  

> When developing the center routine and center layout, keep 
> in mind, can the center flow and center routine accommodate 100 
> or even 200 subjects.  You want to come up with a plan that would 
> allow for more than 10 students at any given time.  I understand 
> you are scheduling your students, however how will you manage to 
> provide the one-on-one attention you are giving now once your 
> center gets to be 50 subjects?  

I have never hidden the fact that I do not envision a large, 100- 
plus student center for myself.  I am not interested in being a 
production line boss.  My business plan explicitly showed a 
projection of 96 students, which works out to only 6 students in 
the center at a time.  With my current system, as I explained to 
Emily, I now project 64 students.  

> The current center space is only serving as a parent waiting 
> area.  Rather than having students work in your office, you want 
> them to work independently at the tables.  

I never wanted a space as large as I was forced to rent.  The 
[agreement with Kumon] clearly stated, "You must operate your 
Center in a commercial office space (strip mall or professional 
building) unless we grant you a written exception to this 
requirement."  I have yet to find the fine print warning that the 
branch will have a heart attack and the Franchise Recruitment 
Manager will scratch the face off your skull if the mere thought 
of anything less than large, expensive storefront crosses your 
mind.  

> In our conversations, you stated you assign the homework and 
> let the parent and student decide on how many pages they do.  

No.  I never said the parent and student decide on how many pages 
to do.  The parent decides what is the appropriate amount of 
Kumon time per day for the child.  Surely that is something a 
parent is in the best position to determine, knowing the 
emotional makeup of the child and his schedule of activities.  

> As a certified Kumon Instructor, you need to make that judgment 
> and assign the proper amount of worksheets.  

Emily and I have discussed this issue at length on several 
occasions.  The first time I had unknowingly assigned a 10-
worksheet assignment that would take a student 40+ minutes and 
make her cry, I said, "Never again."  I examined my own 
completion times and created a table showing a breakdown of the 
math sets into daily assignments that should take 20 minutes or 
less.  Right after implementing this plan, the student came back 
with an assignment completed in exactly 20 minutes.  My 
jubilation over the success of my plan lasted about a second.  I 
immediately realized that if the assignment was just right for my 
best student, it would be way too much for an average or weaker 
student.  With a little more thought I realized that constantly 
guessing at the "right" number of worksheets is a completely 
futile exercise.  The best an instructor can do is continually 
react to what has been going wrong - a student doing either too 
much or too little work at a time.  And the instructor is always 
flying blind because he can't be sure the upcoming sets will take 
the exact same amount of time as the previous ones.  In spite of 
the constant Standard Completion Times (SCTs) within a given 
Kumon level you will find instances where some sets take as much 
as 3 times as long as others.  On a previous center visit you 
(Min) conceded that Kumon was looking into refinements of the 
SCTs.  They would do well to involve me.  

Another problem with blindly assigning a fixed number of 
worksheets per day is the gross, discontinuous, step function 
marking the switch from one workload to another.  In particular, 
the switch back and forth between 10 worksheets per day and 5 
worksheets per day is wrenching.  Suppose the comfortable daily 
Kumon time for a student is 15 minutes, and he can just about 
tolerate 20 minutes, and he starts complaining when his 
assignments start taking 22 minutes.  So the instructor cuts his 
10 worksheets back to 5 and, boom, he's doing a piddling 11 
minutes per day.  Note that the inflexibility of the CMS2 program 
makes assigning workloads that do not divide up 10 worksheets 
precisely, such as 7 worksheets per day, a virtual impossibility.  

The above scenario is based on the assumption that the completion 
time for the individual worksheets within a set [a 10-worksheet 
unit] are more or less constant.  Even that is not the case, as I 
have explained to Emily before.  Coincidentally, I once received 
a call from Emily just as I had finished up a set in the K Level 
[high school].  In that set, the first 7 worksheets took me an 
hour, and the last 3 worksheets took 9 minutes.  I have noted 
other instances where one part of a set requires significantly 
more time than another.  

I know other instructors have regular incidents with parents 
regarding the assigned workload.  ("I'm paying for just two 
worksheets a day???")  This can't happen with a daily Kumon time 
set by the parent.  

> The philosophy of assigning the worksheets is the same as the 
> example I shared with you.  Would a baseball coach just tell his 
> or her players to just practice?  The coach would tell the 
> players specific goals and strategies.  For example, "You need to 
> bend your arm a little bit more and I want you to practice three 
> times a week."  

Emily seems to be calling for more, rather than less, 
individualized attention here.  

> This type of philosophy is the same for Kumon Instructors.  Kumon 
> Instructors cannot just inform the students, "Do as many pages as 
> you want" but state "Sarah, I am assigning you 10 pages of math 
> level 3A and I want you to do it in 15 minutes."  If you are 
> unsure as to the proper number of pages, I would be more than 
> happy to give you my feedback.  You can also implement feedback 
> at your center.  The steps for feedback are simple.  They are as 
> follows.  
>
> 1. Set the goal with the students.  (Time goal? accuracy goal?)   
> 2. Evaluate the goal.  (You finished under the goal time!)   
> 3. Change the lesson planning based on the result.  (You finished 
>    under the goal time, so you won't have to do this again.  Let me 
>    change your homework.) 
>
> It is nothing other than sharing your lesson planning 
> criteria with your students.  If the students are aware of their 
> goal and your criteria for moving them on to the next set, they 
> can progress much faster.  I encourage you to implement feedback 
> at your center.  I would be more than happy to visit your center 
> to implement feedback at your center.  

All of the students know that they have to work accurately and at 
a good pace in order to advance.  When it becomes necessary to 
apply pressure, I use my best judgment on how to do it based on 
the individual student.  Emily observed me in action with Sophie, 
who has been in 3A math for a long time.  Sophie works very 
accurately but with long completion times.  On the day of the 
observation I found a worksheet page that Sophie had missed.  I 
asked her if she minded if I timed her while she did it.  She 
said that was ok.  She did the page in less than 30 seconds.  I 
let her know how great that was and that if she did a whole set 
like that how good her time would be - less than 10 minutes!  For 
a different student I might say, "Alex, if you don't do this set 
in 20 minutes, I'm gonna paste it to your head."  All depends.  

> I noticed you created your own student tracking form.  The 
> CMS2 software was designed to assists Instructors in all aspects 
> of operating a center, specifically with, progress goals, study 
> plans, day-to-day lesson planning & record keeping, monthly 
> reports parent & student communication.  The color codes are user 
> friendly so that the students' and parents can easily see and 
> understand the student's progress.  

My student progress forms have the same color coding.  They have 
the advantage of showing the completion time and the scores for 
each set, so I know where the problem lies.  They also have other 
nice touches, like showing the story title for each reading set.  
They also show my own completion time.  They are "right there," 
as opposed to the digging and waiting you have to do for the 
electronic version to come up.  They take up a miniscule fraction 
of the space of a computer, and... they can be written on!  In 
the previous center visit, you (Min) admitted to the shortcomings 
of the CMS2 graph, and that other instructors are unhappy that 
the color coding doesn't distinguish between problems with time, 
or accuracy, or both.  

> There are many tools within CMS2 that can help you better run 
> your center.  For example, you can print out the session-by-
> session report to pull the student's class work and homework but 
> also to see what is planned.  I encourage you to utilize the CMS2 
> software correctly.  I would be more than happy to show you all 
> the functions CMS2 provides.  
>
> I understand you feel your procedure of operating your 
> Kumon center works for you.  Keep in mind this is a franchise and 
> you cannot alter the Kumon program to your desire.  Section 6.1 
> of the Franchise Agreement addresses the compliance of the Kumon 
> method.  It states, "You agree that strict compliance with the 
> Kumon Method is essential to this Agreement.  Compliance with the 
> Kumon Method means compliance with the standards, procedures and 
> policies contained in this Agreement and in the Operations 
> Manual, as though all were specifically set forth in this 
> agreement."  Additionally, Section 7.4 also states, "you 
> acknowledge that any use of the proprietary Marks, the Kumon 
> Materials, or the Kumon Method other than in the manner we have 
> authorized will be a violation of our rights."  

(Have you replaced the outdated logo in the Rockville center yet?)

> Changing the Kumon method is a serious violation.  

To do so has never crossed my mind.  

> Not only is it a serious violation but it destroys the Kumon 
> brand and image.  The parents and students will perceive the 
> Kumon program as a one-on-one tutoring service.  They may think 
> Kumon centers offer this kind of service.  I understand you state 
> to your parents, that this service is only offered in your 
> center, however, we cannot have Kumon centers offering different 
> methods and services.  If a student transfers to another center, 
> they will expect the same service they received at your center.  
> There are small variations in all centers but the method and 
> routine is virtually the same.  The service we provide to the 
> Kumon students and parents must be consistent at all centers.  
> With our new branding efforts we are redoubling our efforts to 
> insure a consistent and uniform image and service.  We do not 
> want to confuse the public about what kind of service Kumon 
> offers.  

Many other centers use scheduling to some extent or another.  I 
conceived of doing it from the beginning because of the 
testimonials from instructors during our training, both in person 
and on our training tapes.  It seems almost every instructor 
bemoaned problems they had had with assistants.  Asking around, I 
often heard that instructors got up to twenty-some students 
before hiring assistants.  A few calculations indicated that, 
with scheduling and being open four days a week, I could run a 
successful Kumon center without assistants.  The March 2005 
monthly instructor meeting held in Wilmington could easily have 
been subtitled "Even more reasons not to have assistants: child 
abuse, lawsuits, and IRS hassles."  

I'm sure Emily exaggerates the sameness of Kumon centers.  I know 
that parents who have transferred from Wilmington centers to the 
Georgetown center are pleased with the individual attention 
their children get there.  I am not aware of the Georgetown 
center being censured for this, nor of the Wilmington centers 
receiving accolades.  

Emily's implication that my center routine differs drastically 
from a set of rules or guidelines, even unwritten, doesn't bear 
scrutiny.  My Kumon students are assigned daily work; they come 
to the center once or twice a week; they receive new assignments.  
Just like everywhere else.  The typical person would probably 
notice as many differences between two McDonald's restaurants as 
between my Kumon center and another - and not worry himself about 
it in either case.  

At the CMS2 training session in February, 2005, I was quite 
mystified to hear Emily exhorting us to modify the basic Kumon 
Method as taught in training.  She told us that "reds" do not 
necessarily mean to repeat.  She talked about the acceptable 
number of errors within a set, when the worksheets and CMS2 are 
designed to work with grades, not the number wrong.  She told us 
we should be checking the students' number sense, something which 
is not a part of Kumon.  (Kumon doesn't even address something as 
fundamental as even versus odd.)  She lectured that we should 
examine students' errors to distinguish slips versus real 
problems in understanding.  Absolutely none of this is basic 
Kumon, which is to reassign worksheets until the reds disappear.  
Any one of these deviations is far more radical than my students 
working for a set amount of time as opposed to a guessed-at 
number of worksheets.  Now it is safe to say that I have been 
doing all of the above from the beginning, although until now I 
had always worried that if the branch found out, they would jump 
on any one of these "infractions" as a means to get me.  

> Please read over my observations, and recommendations, and 
> let me know if you have any comments or questions.  Min and I 
> will visit your center on April 18, 2005 to see how these 
> suggested improvements are implemented.  If this date is not 
> convenient for you, please let me know.  

You are welcome to return, but it will not be for a rerun of what 
Emily observed in January.  That went perfectly.  She saw me in 
action with students from 7A Reading [absolute beginner] to E 
Math [fifth grade].  She saw feedback.  She saw me grade 
worksheets using my bound volumes of completed worksheets.  She 
saw the beauty of lesson planning on the fly.  She saw happy 
parents.  Emily's presence made some of the students very nervous - 
poor Maddy [a 3-year-old] had to run out to get her father - but, 
in spite of that, Emily saw lots of smiles and laughs from my 
students.  

You can appreciate that I have no confidence that the branch is 
able to observe or record its observations accurately and 
honestly, so I will view any visit by branch personnel as wasted 
effort unless accompanied by outside observers.  

If you would like to run a session according to Emily's center 
routine and collect feedback from the parents and students, that 
is fine.  I suspect most parents and students will think it odd 
to revert back to what we moved away from over the last year, but 
you never know.  Or, you may want to use the visit simply to 
interview the parents and students.  Perhaps there are complaints 
I am not aware of.  You may grill the parents about the 
reliability of their grading and the completion times, and tell 
the students how fast they must work.  But in any case, it's your 
show; I will not be there.

> I know you desire to increase your enrollment, and we want to 
> help you.  

That is not borne out by the flip dismissal of my request, on 
several occasions, for a Kumon flyer that says what Kumon is, as 
opposed to how great Kumon is.  At follow-up training you asked 
us what the branch could do for us.  I put in a request for 
straightforward advertising flyers.  You didn't even write it 
down - the only request not recorded - and responded with instant 
negativity to the idea.  I am not comfortable with the glitz and 
hype.  The word "worksheets," which is what Kumon is, appears one 
time in the Kumon brochure.  It can hardly be found on the first 
several pages a person would normally visit on the Kumon web 
site.  (For what it's worth, a study of an admittedly tiny sample 
of Kumon instructors shows that to get rid of bothersome 
inquiring parents, they send them to Kumon's web site, knowing 
they will never be heard from again.)  It is monumentally 
inefficient for Kumon to place the burden on each individual 
instructor to educate every, single prospective parent from 
scratch about the worksheets, the repetition, and the low, low 
starting point.  I believe there is hardly a product on the 
market that could serve itself better by saying in as forthright 
a manner as possible exactly what it is.  I expressed this at 
another time in follow-up training and found myself in a minority 
of one, the majority holding that parents truly do need to be 
hooked into Kumon.  

> I truly appreciate your willingness to communicate openly 
> with me.  

I will continue to communicate openly and honestly.  I invite the 
branch to do the same.  To write such a four-page letter without 
a single example of a violation of the agreement with Kumon on my 
part, there must be a hidden agenda.  I will try to help you out 
here.  You are afraid that my knowledge of the Kumon learning 
materials and my gift for working with students will make other 
Kumon centers look bad in comparison - as if any two instructors 
are alike; as if anybody does comparison shopping of Kumon 
centers; as if anybody outside of Dover is even aware there's a 
Dover Kumon.  

> It makes it much easier for us to understand your perspective 
> regarding the important issues we discussed.  It is clear that 
> you are devoted to your students as well as your business.  
> Please let me know if there is anything I can do.  

Yes.  Please reread this paragraph in the Kumon brochure: "All 
Kumon instructors share a passion for education and an earnest 
desire to help children succeed.  They will invariably apply 
their talent and training in the Kumon Method to make the most 
constructive contribution possible to your child's future."  

> Respectfully yours, 
> Emily Kim 
> Area Development Manager 
> Washington, DC Office 
> Kumon North America 
> 
> cc: Min Woo, Branch Manager 
>     Rima Muth, US East Instruction Specialist 

Donald Sauter
Dover Kumon

I received an acknowledgment of my email from the branch, but no response to any of my points. Then I had a phone chat with Kumon's U.S. East General Manager. In a follow-up email I tried to lay out my business plan as clearly as possible and asked for a ruling on its acceptability. These are the main points from that email:

From: me
To: Adam Shapiro, General Manager, U.S. East
Date: Apr 11 2005

Hi Adam, 

I believe the best plan of action is for me to lay out as clearly 
as possible my vision for my Dover Kumon center so that there are 
no surprises for anyone later on.  I don't want to have to run my 
center looking over my shoulder all the while.  To be honest, I 
can't imagine why anything here should even require a permission, 
but then, I honestly don't know what I've done so far to set off 
alarms.

[...]

I want to continue scheduling all students; that is, each student
will have his own individual, appointed time at the center.  The
main reason for scheduling students was to eliminate the need for
assistants.  But the side benefit - being able to work side by
side with each student on every center visit - has worked too
wonderfully for me to give up.

[...]

To summarize: Dover Kumon, operating in a smaller office suite,
projects a maximum of 64 students who come to the center once a
week at an appointed time, with completed but uncorrected work,
and receive personal attention from the instructor on each visit.

[...]

I'd like for everyone up and down the chain of command to
give it careful, open-minded consideration.  I am a firm believer
in majority rule, and if the consensus is that, no, this is just
too "far out" for a Kumon center, I will accept that, although
with great disappointment, of course.  The idea is, if I have to
part company with Kumon, it would be best for it to happen now,
rather than later.

Donald

In other words, I could accept being shut down, but not on a whim of the branch personnel.

There was another phone call and email from Adam, leading up to this email:

From: me
To: Adam Shapiro
Date: May 13 2005

Hi Adam, 

You recently wrote: 

> As we discussed during our last [phone] conversation, some of the 
> procedures and activities undertaken at your Dover Kumon Center, 
> while certainly leading to a degree of student achievement and 
> customer satisfaction, may not be completely in line with the 
> Kumon methodology.  

I have not deviated from the Kumon method in any way.  In my 
original response to Area Development Manager Emily Kim's 
comments, I gave my best shot at explaining how the perceived 
differences between my Dover Kumon center and the "average" Kumon 
center are matters of center routine only, not Kumon methodology.  
Moreover, I argued that my center routine itself is hardly 
different in its main aspects.  

> Having students come just once per week and scheduling 
> individually appointed times may lessen independent learning - 
> one of the cornerstones on the Kumon approach to learning - and, 
> ultimately, subject proficiency.  

I responded to the smoky accusation of hampering "independent 
learning" in my response to Emily's letter.  In my phone 
conversation with you I gave my thoughts on "independent 
learning."  Because of the continued allegation, and since it is 
possibly Kumon's most hallowed catch phrase, it is worth 
recording my thoughts here.  

I believe there is no essential difference between learning from 
a person, or a book, or a worksheet.  Anything that a person can 
say can be written down; anything that can be written down can be 
said.  A good instructor has the advantage of being able to say 
just the needed thing at just the right time.  He will notice 
when something he said did not connect, and will then say it in 
different ways until it does connect.  If money were no factor, 
what parent would choose worksheets alone over highly-competent 
one-on-one instruction?  The latter is universally (minus one...) 
considered the "gold standard" of education.  (One-on-two 
instruction is much superior to one-on-one, but only I know that.)  
But money is a factor, and when faced with prices up to $120 per 
hour for a good tutor - and no doubt the shoddy ones, too - $80 
per month for a worksheet-based "independent learning" system 
becomes a fantastically cost-effective alternative.  

Did I just say that Kumon is not "independent learning"?  No.  
All learning is "independent," regardless of the form of 
instruction, in the sense that the student himself has to make 
the effort to receive the information, understand it, and put it 
to use.  Your teacher - whether human or paper - can't do any of 
your thinking for you.  For the record, I describe Kumon as a 
"self-powered" learning system, which I think gets closer to the 
idea that the student's rate of progress through the curriculum 
depends on the effort he puts into it.  

> So, as previously discussed, I would like to schedule a visit 
> with you at your Center in the near future.  

You had agreed in the phone conversation that another center 
observation so soon after Emily's would serve no purpose.  The 
combination of Emily's report and my response to it must surely 
give a crystal clear picture of what goes on at my center.  I 
work with each student on every center visit for about 15 
minutes, doing everything in my power to burn in the learning 
material.  The student takes the co-pilot's seat and I observe 
him correct errors on recent assignments.  If everything is under 
control, we look ahead.  I believe I have a very strong, natural 
talent for this.  No one from the branch has disputed this, but 
in case there are unexpressed doubts, I urge you to talk to the 
Dover Kumon parents.  They hear everything that goes on.  
Regardless of my particular case, I believe one of the most 
valuable things that can come out of this is for you to talk with 
parents, at Dover and elsewhere, to see how valid your concerns 
about center consistency are.  

But more than that, another center observation is irrelevant to 
the problem at hand.  In my last communication I laid out my 
updated Dover Kumon business plan for approval or rejection.  

- Dover Kumon projects a maximum of 64 students. 
- Students are individually scheduled.  
- Students come to the center once a week.
- Students come with their most recent assignment completed but 
  not corrected. 
- Each student receives about 15 minutes of personal attention on 
  every visit. 
- Dover Kumon will move to a smaller office suite.

The ball is in your court to respond with a yea or nay, and there 
is nothing here requiring another center visit.  Obviously, there 
are no contract-breakers in there.  There are smaller Kumon 
centers size-wise and student-wise; there are Kumon centers that 
utilize scheduling, although none perhaps to the extent that mine 
does; there are many once-a-week Kumon students and there are 
Kumon centers with a once-a-week policy for everybody; 
correspondence students never come to a center at all, never mind 
with or without completed assignments; Kumon touts the personal 
attention that Kumon instructors give students.  

But I've made it easy for you.  You don't have to whip up 
nebulous charges based on "independent learning" and 
"instructional consistency" as grounds for terminating me.  In my 
previous communication I wrote, "What I'd like is for everyone up 
and down the chain of command to  give it careful, open-minded 
consideration.  I am a firm believer in majority rule, and if the 
consensus is that, no, this is just too "far out" for a Kumon 
center, I will accept that, although with great disappointment, 
of course.  The idea is, if I have to part company with Kumon, it 
would be best for it to happen now, rather than later."  

Of course, it wouldn't hurt if Kumon explicitly listed those 
elements of my operation, current and proposed, to which it 
objects, and modified its documents to forbid them.  For example: 

- You may not assist a student unless he explicitly asks for help.
- You may not individually schedule student arrival times.  
- You may not duplicate functions handled by CMS2 on paper.  
- Your Kumon Center size must be at least 1200 square feet - no 
  exceptions. 

This would be of benefit to all current and future Kumon 
instructors.  It would be helpful for me to know that the 
shutdown was not the result of whim, resentment, jealousy, 
meeting a shutdown quota, etc., at work at the branch level.  For 
now, I can't help wondering if, had I been operating under a 
different branch, some of my little touches would have gotten me 
on the cover of Kumon Voices [quarterly magazine for Kumon 
Instructors].  

Let me break here for a moment to insert a paragraph so politically incorrect that if anyone reads it, the earth's magnetic poles may flip. The ages of the two branch managers combined is less than the age of the typical Kumon instructor, and their combined experience running a Kumon center is off the scale (bottom-wise). Are we really so enlightened in this day and age that that doesn't matter to the people they have power over - personal business owners, by the way? After the January center visit, my most militantly feminist Kumon mother asked, with a wonderfully baffled expression, "Who was that girl???" Sorry. Back to the email.

I can't deny your request for a center visit, of course.  I will 
reiterate that we both agreed that there is no reason for one so 
soon after Emily's.  In spite of that I extend an open-door 
policy - anyone may stop in to observe the Dover Kumon center at 
any time, without prior arrangements, even.  Bear in mind, 
though, the fundamental truth that the mere act of observation 
affects the results of any experiment.  I can't say for sure, 
but what might be observed in Dover is an instructor operating in 
Kumon's maximum "independent learning" mode - no words passed 
with anyone else in the center, just collecting completed work 
and handing out new assignments.  Recall the instructor featured 
in "The Kumon Philosophy - A Journey of Discovery," who proudly 
wrote, "Since then, all I have to do is just stand quietly at the 
corner of the class saying hello and goodbye to the students."  

You expressed an interest in learning more about me.  Here are a 
few things that come to mind that may show me in relation to 
other Kumon instructors. 

The most recent Kumon Voices features a letter from an instructor 
who is only now starting to make "on-the-spot alterations of 
lesson plans."  She says, "I love watching my students' surprised 
and happy expressions when I take away work they no longer have 
to do..."  

I have never assigned a repetition of worksheets without a specific 
reason for it.  

I've mentioned that when things are going well with a student, we 
look ahead.  One area is the long division "D mountain" [a long 
grind of long division in level D (fourth grade)].  When a 
student has that under control and is simply improving time and 
accuracy, we look ahead to fractions so that the student can hit 
the ground running when he gets there.  

Another area is the run of four-operation problems in Level F 
[sixth grade].  I take that opportunity to do everything in my 
power to prepare students for the introductory algebra problems 
("value of x") and the extremely challenging word problems in the 
following sets.  My goal is for all of my students to understand 
what is going on so well that they can do these problems on a 
blank sheet, with no prompts of any sort.  Certainly, only a tiny 
fraction of high school graduates would be capable of that.  An 
instructor featured in "The Kumon Philosophy, A Journey of 
Discovery" freely admits that she omits the word problems 
completely for some students.  I had no idea that skipping Kumon 
material was permissible.  

The most recent Bridge [monthly Kumon newsletter] discusses 
modifications to the lower-level reading worksheets.  Although I 
had just come on board when the survey was distributed, I had had 
enough experience with Level 3A [kindergarten] to submit my 
thoughts.  I was mindboggled at how meaningless a particular set 
called "The Missing Letter" had to be to any young reader because 
a) it was so bizarre, and b) it was based on three stories the 
student hadn't even read yet!  Apparently my advice was 
considered; they replaced that set.  

I also gave them a piece of my mind about the silly and confusing 
presentation of the four classic stories at the end of Level 3A.  
There again, they promised to "streamline" those stories.  

[I found out later that I was one of only 70 instructors, out of Kumon's 1200 instructors, who responded to that survey so it's very safe to say my voice was heard.]

When I brought up the "Missing Letter" set in follow-up training, 
no one knew what I was talking about, nor seemed to be familiar 
with it even after a copy was pulled from the shelf.  But the 
main reason for bringing it up is to give another example of my 
never-say-die attitude towards the Kumon worksheets.  I assign 
the "Missing Letter" after the three Mini-books since it 
is based on them.  The student always reads it in class, beside 
me, so that we can work out everything together that doesn't make 
sense.  

Prior to the recent Instructor Advisory Council (IAC) meeting I 
submitted a suggestion to my IAC representative regarding an 
egregious gap in Kumon's curriculum: 

> I believe that prime factorization for a single number, using 
> "upside-down division" (as introduced on D185 for two numbers at once), 
> should be introduced early on in the work with fractions.  The 
> understanding that any number is "made up" of a batch of prime factors 
> is fundamental to the ideas of reduction, GCFs and LCMs.  The "trick" 
> for recognizing if a number is divisible by 3 should be presented in 
> the worksheets.  I am more than a little shocked to find that there 
> are Kumon instructors who do not know this trick.  I believe the 
> tricks for recognizing when factors of 7 and 11 are present should 
> also be added to the worksheets.  Then we have the first five primes 
> under our control: 2, 3, 5, 7, and 11.  It is a very useful exercise, 
> and quite fun and satisfying, to break down large numbers (4- and 
> 5-digits, say) into a string of these small primes, plus maybe one 
> remaining larger prime.  Kids really like playing with big numbers.  

Although the IAC representative is obligated to present instructor 
comments at the meeting with the President, I never heard a single 
word back regarding this or my other suggestions.  

Let me close with a counter-proposal.  I can't help wondering if 
what really has everyone so worried is my knowledge of the 
learning materials and my insights into education and Kumon going 
just a little too deep.  (He's dangerous!  All we want is 
business people for instructors!)  Perhaps what is so frightening 
in an instructor could be very beneficial in a different 
capacity.  Witness the effect I've had already in improving the 
worksheets.  In the notes from the most recent IAC meeting we're 
told, "Kumon's average length of stay (ALS) and retention 
declined last year despite the big [marketing] campaign."  There 
must be reasons for that.  It couldn't hurt Kumon to consider my 
input.  

Donald Sauter

And that's about it.

A couple of weeks after the above email there was a reorganization and a new leader of the US East, M. Dean Bradley, was installed. His introductory letter gave me hope that I might finally have someone in my corner. Here's an excerpt that shows support for individualized Kumon instruction, and also what sounds like an admission that things have been less than perfect with branch personnel:

Kumon is a great program, but partnered with an excellent Instructor, the experience is nothing short of amazing.

I see my most important job as that of working closely with the branch staff with whom you have daily dealings. Many of them already bring so much to the table; I hope that my spending additional time with them on a regular basis will help to further sharpen their skills as Kumon consultants. I long to see, in a few years from now, friendly and confident staff versed in all facets of Kumon, but especially in Kumon Reading and Kumon Math, including how both should be properly individualized to meet the needs of all students who enroll.

Emphasis his.

Unfounded hope mine.

I never heard back from Kumon at any level regarding a single sentence appearing in any of my emails, and certainly not my offer to help transform Kumon to a powerhouse learning program where the enrollment at any point in time is not simply a count of duped parents.

I forged ahead for the next year under a cloud of uncertainty. It was obvious some months before the expiration of my 2-year contract that Kumon would not be offering to renew it, and I warded off quite a few prospective customers in that period. I didn't renew the lease on my business space, and a few weeks later received Kumon's official Notice of Non-Renewal.

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