I recently received an email from a parent of a boy who I had tutored last year.  He asked me where he could find good worksheets on the internet for his son.  I thought, “Admirable…a parent who wants to help his child.”

But then I asked him why he wanted the worksheets.  In his next email he wrote, “I want to drill division into my son’s head until he knows it like the back of his hand.”

Okay.  Great, so he’ll find a slew of worksheets. Then what?  Who is going to teach his son how to divide?

You can’t just get on a bike for the first time and expect to ride it!!!  You need someone to guide you!

Worksheets are fine, but, only after proper instruction.  There’s no point on doing division (or any other math skill) IF YOU”RE DOING IT WRONG!!!  What this father should have been looking for (rather than math worksheets on the web) is some quality instruction.  He could have looked for an in-home tutor (he moved far away in case you were wondering why I still didn’t tutor his son), a tutoring school, or an online tutor (Tutorgiant anyone?).

I kindly suggested to him that he should spend his time seeking quality instruction because his son will ‘learn’ how to divide properly rather than depending on math worksheets.  In his next email, he just thanked me (I’m not sure what he chose to do).

The point here is this: In my opinion, (and hopefully you appreciate it), nothing replaces quality instruction.

When a kid gets it, the knowledge and skills become his.  There is no need to work the poor kid to the bone hoping that he learns from just doing worksheet after worksheet.  Don’t get me wrong, students need practice, and lots of it!  But focusing on the math worksheets and not the instruction is a mistake.

Finally, if a child is not getting it the first few times, keep giving him the instruction until he is nauseated with it!! Then, and only then, will you know that he understands it (imagine receiving the same basic lesson on division 10-20 times…something has to sink in and his boredom will let you know when he has learned it).

So, my answer to this situation is…math worksheets are okay, but focus on the instruction, then worry about the worksheets.  Stuart Ackerman