Just the Facts, Mann

My deep love for teaching and learning was sparked in large measure by good family friends, Bertha and Maurice Mann. They owned and ran the Hollywood Professional School in Hollywood, California. HPS is where Betty Grable, Ryan O’Neal, the Beach Boys, Jackson Five, Peggy Fleming, Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Val Kilmer, Melanie Griffith, Valerie Bertinelli, most of the Brady Bunch kids and many other actors and athletes went to school. It provided the perfect schedule and flexibility for students who were working professionals.

Mrs. Mann let me attend summer school there as a child and I always looked forward to it. The classes were lively and interesting and Mrs. Mann had a passion for education. She gave me a lot of encouragement and support. I loved to learn and learn new ways to learn.

Mrs. Mann often shared learning techniques she came across at conferences. When I was seven she shared a new learning idea she heard about. It was a way to learn math facts – addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. The idea is students should just know that “3 x 7 = 21” or “11-4=7” rather than having to figure it out. Having math facts at the ready for rapid recall means students don’t have to waste time constantly calculating those basic things.

Mrs. Mann’s simple, effective technique? She gave me a couple dozen math facts flash cards. These were 8”x3” stiff cardboard cards with things like “2+9=11” and “7+8=15.” She had me tape them in strategic places around my room. I put one flash card on the headboard of my bed, the ceiling high above my pillow, wall by the light switch, wall above my desk, closet door, inside of my bedroom door, outside of my door, bathroom mirror over the sink, wall above the toilet, wall opposite the toilet, fridge door…everywhere. As I moved around my room each day, I saw these math facts. After a few days Mrs. Mann gave me new cards to replace the ones I had learned. Before long I knew all my math facts cold.

This learning method wasn’t high tech. But it was simple and it surely worked.

I still recommend Mrs. Mann’s “immersion” method for learning math facts today. While computers can display math facts flash cards and have some interesting features, they can’t be freely used everywhere a paper flash card can. Computerizing every education tool for the sake of computerizing them doesn’t make sense. Are there “back to basics” ways to learn we’ve lost sight of? Are there new types of manipulatives that bring concepts to life? Can we be more mindful of ways to leverage and stretch our resources and use the right tool for the job?

John Stuppy, john@tutorvista.com