Hands-On Learning of Numbers

06/09/2003

"Now for the other life. The one without mistakes." - Lou Lipsitz

HANDS-ON LEARNING OF NUMBERS

In the May/June 2003 issue of Child Care Information Exchange, David Elkind offers this insight in his article, "How Children Build Their Understanding of Numbers:"

"It is hard to overemphasize the importance of. . .hands-on experiences for young children. I once gave a talk at the University of Iowa and met the Dean of the School of Engineering. I was surprised when he asked me who I thought made the best engineers. I had no good answer. He replied, 'It is the young men and young women who have grown up on farms and have had a lot of experience with machinery.' A personal example may further illustrate this point. My father was a machinist and often came home frustrated and depressed. The college trained engineers drew beautiful blueprints. But what they had drawn couldn't be turned on a lathe of a milling machine. Without a college education, and without getting any credit, my father had to redraw the plans so that the pieces could be machined.

"With respect to number, the same experiential principle holds true. It is certainly important for children to learn number words, but it is even more important that they learn to classify and seriate real objects. To paraphrase Froebel, 'Children must learn the language of things before they learn the language of numbers.'"

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