My Kumon journey
Effort, strategy and attitude: a toolkit for navigating uncertainty
“The only thing we know for certain about the future is that it will be different from the present.” COVID-19 has made this adage from Peter Drucker , an American businessman, author and educator, more relevant than ever. Sandhya, a future student at the University of Oxford and former Kumon student, says her Kumon Mathematics studies helped to ready her for the uncertainty she will face in her future.
Sandhya has been accepted into Oxford to study an undergraduate degree in philosophy, politics and economics. Despite the obvious uncertainty regarding her near future plans, Sandhya remains cautiously optimistic. She believes she can
adapt to a rapidly changing situation. Sandhya says her Kumon Mathematics studies played a key role in building her readiness to navigate uncertainty.
Sandhya says Kumon showed her the value of always putting in her best effort. This was key for her successful admission into Oxford, she says, and will continue to serve her well throughout her university studies, as well as afterwards.
“The little bit of study required each day by Kumon helped me to develop discipline, independence, confidence and resilience,” Sandhya says. “I was also encouraged in Kumon to continually set goals and to push my limits.” “Kumon showed me the value of persistence and repetition from a young age.” Self-learning, the set of skills and capabilities that allow one to pursue learning independently and to acquire new knowledge without having to rely on a teacher, will be invaluable for Sandhya’s future. Self-learning provides Sandhya the capability and strategies for on acquiring and applying new knowledge.
“The worksheets allow you to gradually build up enough knowledge before you move onto the set of problems,” Sandhya says. “The examples in the worksheets also give you enough information to self-learn; they give you the tools to work out the problems on your own.”
“Kumon students are used to being able to tackle, new and unfamiliar problems.” By applying enough effort to progress through Kumon and to build her self-learning ability, Sandhya began to study advanced
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