Why Singapore Mathematics? | Classical Education at Home

A short description of the key components of the world's best mathematics curriculum. Hillsdale College helps K-12 teachers and parents to bring classical education back to America's schools.

Hillsdale College is an independent institution of higher learning founded in 1844 by men and women “grateful to God for the inestimable blessings” resulting from civil and religious liberty and “believing that the diffusion of learning is essential to the perpetuity of these blessings.” It pursues the stated object of the founders: “to furnish all persons who wish, irrespective of nation, color, or sex, a literary, scientific, [and] theological education” outstanding among American colleges “and to combine with this such moral and social instruction as will best develop the minds and improve the hearts of its pupils.” As a nonsectarian Christian institution, Hillsdale College maintains “by precept and example” the immemorial teachings and practices of the Christian faith.

The College also considers itself a trustee of our Western philosophical and theological inheritance tracing to Athens and Jerusalem, a heritage finding its clearest expression in the American experiment of self-government under law.

By training the young in the liberal arts, Hillsdale College prepares students to become leaders worthy of that legacy. By encouraging the scholarship of its faculty, it contributes to the preservation of that legacy for future generations. By publicly defending that legacy, it enlists the aid of other friends of free civilization and thus secures the conditions of its own survival and independence.

[LDSpecialist]

I am an educational therapist who has studied physiological psychology and cognitive psychology (and I have a degree and a teaching credential for math.) The part of the brain that activates for mathematics is the tactile system at the top of the brain. Yes! we use the "feeling" part of the brain for math! That is why it is so important for young children to do lots of counting with their pointer finger. The tactile sensation will actually build the neural connections that become the quantity concepts. If a child does not have enough of this counting experience he will not understand what "oneness, twoness, fiveness, ... tenness, etc is. Humans first learn through their senses, the more senses used, the easier the learning ... touch, seeing, hearing. Once a child has counted enough (touching the object, saying aloud its number name, seeing it), then he can move to just drawing the object, and finally after enough practice at this stage, to the abstract stage alone (in reality he will be able to visualize the objects in his head without any physical representations.) when I teach math I ALWAYS start at the physical tactile level!! --Even at the Algebra level!!

[heidib.]

We are in year two (now 5th grade) of Dimensions Math (the USA newly released Singapore Math) and it is so different from what we are accustomed to - it feels odd - that I started to look online at more traditional math programs. Then I saw this video series about Singapore pop up! I am a great admirer of Hillsdale and so I took a deep breath, reminded myself why we wanted to go this route in the first place, and will continue on! I so want my last three to love math - a struggle my first three had all through 1-12. Thank you for the encouragement.

[dsbennett]

I graduated high school in 1967. I learned to do addition and multiplication in my head by separating the ones, tens, hundreds, etc. into groups, which simplified the problem-solving. I see numbers as groups. Sometimes I see numbers as a vertical scale with narrow and wide lines separating by tens and fifties and hundreds. All sorts of visual methods for making math easier. 6x12 = (6x10 + 6x2)

[kahsiongkiu]

I am from Singapore and learning all these Singapore Maths for my whole education life, I added using excel for my work!!!

[fretnottrustingod]

Once, children grew up on family farms or helped in (2-parent, functional) families where muscular activity promoted abstracting formats into 2's, 3's, 4's, 5's, etc.. Scandinavian schools may still use "recess" to muscularly incorporate concepts into abstract knowledge. The 60's cast aside those "old paths" and castrated our brains.

[danandbritradinggoods]

OMG THANK YOU SO MUCH Hillsdale! I've been following your Imprimus pamphlets for a while but thank you for making this. I'm starting to homeschool my 5 year old in California this year and it's so hard to find the latest in education without being a teacher or former teacher, or watching an annoying lady on here. Love you guys and I hope my children attend your college in 12 years!

[sitinoor]

Except for 'Mother Tongue' (/Malay/Chinese/Tamil) subjects, English has been the medium through which all subjects are taught in schools since the phasing out of ethnic (Malay/Chinese) schools. And that was way back in the 1960s/early 1970s. The Singapore Mathematics model system was developed in 1982. So, like Renee Lee pointed out, by the time the model system is taught in Singapore schools, English has always been the only language used in all schools. There is no such "shift in instruction to English" event ever happening as mentioned in the video. That didn't happen.

[reneelee]

When the abstract picture model system implemented in Singapore, I believe English is already spoken by at least 60 to 70 percent of the population.

[shadowdragon]

I really appreciate this mans red pants and brown belt combo, are those corduroy?

[emalejack]

I am from Singapore the only math I’m good at is counting paper

[emilzeeloy]

It doesn’t consider the faculty of memory, capacity of association and confidence to develop towards higher levels. Used Singapore for 4 years and things got terrible! Had to study a lot to know why and find out the reason.

[climik]

Do you have any suggested online learning resources that mirror your K-12 curriculum?

We have a 7th grader at a classical academy who would greatly benefit from having a secondary source for her daily lesson. Anything you could reference us to (paid or free) would be greatly appreciated.

[patmark]

Pray an act of perfect contrition everyday

[OGU]

I don't know if he ends up using chalk on a chalkboard, but the thought alone is enough to make me close the video. Can't do it lol

[nh]

Could u clean the chalkboard cleanly so one can see what you’ve written?

[FlashToso]

ppl complain about Common Core for doing the same!
Amazing that ppl object to the algebraic or higher math approach!

[ccksg]

Cant read not clean enough, need to change the duster. White board is better.

[Skeptical_Hippo]

How about American math where we skip to the abstractions since we speak English and can therefore get to the point & just do the equation.

[frankelliott]

This is a dumbed-down version of the New Math. You should just teach set theory from the beginning.

[hockyak]

Singapore mathematics has very little understanding, it's more about remembering pattern and equation application, you can win competition but you cannot go very far in academia and discovery.