The Myth of Abacus ,Mental Maths and Vedic Maths

Hi Anjali,

Many Thanks i was having a plan to send my DS to abacus class.

Now i may not.


Cheers,
Anitha

 

I'm sorry to disagree with you, Anjali!!!

I agree on some points, although my son also did abacus for 1.5 years, he did not benefit at all from it, he used to add fast while he was doing the course, but now that he stopped the classes for the last 2 years, he cant add so fast!!! But he's still good at maths.

I would say that is because he never practiced the short cuts... it takes a lot of practice to use those learnings regularly and consistently and to benefit from it in the long run !

So, I wouldnt blame the subjects (or shortcuts as you call it), it is eastern knowledge as compared to the western methods that we study in school - so it is not useless - we are somehow failing to apply it to school studies because our schools follow the western methods..

I do vedic maths myself - I am not a teacher, I just like the subject and do lots of sums when I'm free - yeah yeah I know I'm crazy - my son is not interested right now, but he's still young at 8, so I still have time !!!

So the subject is not totally useless, it is the application in our school lives that needs more thought and focus

And if you really understand the formulas instead of just cramming and using the shortcuts, you'll improve your analytical skills in leaps and bounds and the formulas or methods are so universal that you can use some of the same methods even in algebra, trigonometry and matrices too, the methods are amazing actually, and so short, e.g can you calculate to 20 digits after decimal point, the value of 1/19 (simplest) in about 5 seconds, I can without using a calculator using vedic maths !!! Can you solve an equation and find the value of x when the equation has x to the degree of 5 (x raised to 5 etc) !!

If you can multiply 89x93 in 4 seconds, how does that make you dull and without analytical skills???

I think we need better teachers (I do take some free demo classes if some parents ask, but dont have time for consistent teaching !)
HR

 

I have not attended any Kumoan,Abacus or such classes but I do mean to let my kids attend some when they have free time and when the time is right......................my rational is learning is hundred times better the watching TV.why we go for end result of securing marks in exam rather we should see that did it increase the love towards the subject or made the child willing to try new things......or was good use of free time.

As ex Maths teacher I used to encourage small kids to do things in proper step wise manner & don't go by answers ...............so getting the answer of multiplication right is not the aim but doing right way is the focus here........and kids were given marks according to steps done and not answer.

secondly ,with so much technology available kids don't want to do things the long hard way which is still important to understand how things work.so,sort cuts don't work......

as kids get to higher classes we expect then to do a bit of mental mathematics for basic addition,subtraction etc & I feel now is the stage when such classes may help.

lastly,practice makes perfect............if you keep on doing something the time spent on it shortens........so even if someone may not be able to calculate 89*93 in 4 sec he/she can definately do it in 20 secs..........and what does it matter if you take little more time to do it,after all you are doing it for your own pleasure & not practicing to appear in some bank exam......if practicing for some exam them time does matter so sure clock youself .

 

thanks for the information

 

I wonder if traditional methods of teaching math are going to go obsolete. I mean look at today's technology. Why do you have to multiply 1256x3564 when there is a calculator to do it. I think there are even apps to factorize large numbers which you need to do in algebra. But other than that, what is the use of learning to multiply large numbers when a simple tool can help you do it.

Anybody here thinks the same?

 

I also agree. I didn't put my son for abacus thinking the same. What's he's going to gain by doing faster? I never did any classes like this when I studied. Now things have changed, but don't see an advantage by doing a problem in 2 seconds. I prefer him to understand the methods and learn to analyze problems correctly.

 

Thanks for sharing this Anjali!!

 

I think in the US they do allow High school kids to use calculators in exams. It was painful not to be able to use calculators when I was in my pre-university. The Logarithm Tables were so tiny, and during exams when you were anxious and nervous a simple mistake looking at the log tables gave a totally different answer, and a wrong one!!

Thank goodness for calculators!!

 

I can agree to all the above points. Abacaus and Vedic maths can be used for shortcuts, I will also agree with other IL were you don't need to do in 2 seconds you can take even 20 seconds to do multiplication. We can also use calculator which is definitely not allowed in indian schools.
My point is atleast we can use these so called tricks for rechecking atleast for kids above 12 years. In Vedic maths I have heard ( I had not learnt Vedic maths) you can calculate square root and cube root within seconds which will be definitely useful for secondary children.
Please share your views regarding the above.