Barbara's story

Transcript (3.57)

Interviewer: What were you doing before you ran the Mirfield Kumon centre?

Barbara: I was teaching English as a second language, working mainly with Hungarian refugees, economic refugees. I still do a bit of that, and I've also been a parent support advisor with the local council.

Interviewer: Fantastic, wow. So what was it at that point that made you think I want to become a Kumon Instructor?

Barbara: I looked at it several years ago, but there wasn't a Kumon area close by me, which meant I would have had to travel. It wasn't on the expansion list anywhere near. I think it was fate that I happened to be doing an event in a school with some Romanian gypsies, and the head teacher gave me a notice that said Kumon Mirfield, the Instructor's retiring and that was it. I informed Lucy Parker, and within a very short period of time, I was in this room training. It all seemed to go very quickly.

Interviewer: What was it about Kumon that particularly appealed to you?

Barbara: I think the fact that it's been around since the 1950s. It's not something fly by night. Because a lot of things, especially that, they haven't worked in education. There's something different continuously. We're doing maths. It's partitioning now. Next thing it's junking. You can't keep up with it, and to actually be doing something the way that I was taught, and to find that actually it still works. It hasn't changed. It's not been subject to the national curriculum.

I think the fact with its international status, especially having worked in a lot of countries, I've known it from other countries. I did like its reputation, and I liked that traditional, old-fashioned almost, system of it. Children have to write. They're not learning something else, like they're typing on the computer. They're having to put pen to paper.

Interviewer: What qualities do you think a Kumon Instructor needs to possess?

Barbara: Patience, resilience, organisation. You have to be organised.

Interviewer: What would you say are the biggest rewards of being a Kumon Instructor?

Barbara: One of the loveliest things is when somebody sends you an e-mail and says, "We got it." Or something new happened. I have one particular boy, who when I joined, was really struggling, and his mum bought me a bunch of flowers last week along with his certificate he received in assembly. I mean, he's only seven, but he'd done all his times tables. When I took over, he was at the bottom of the class, and the teachers didn't have much hope for him and said lines like, "Well, we don't expect much more of him." That's a lovely reward, because children are good at something. They might not be good at everything, but they are good at something. And it's finding that.

Interviewer: What would you say is the single best thing about being a Kumon Instructor?

Barbara: Success on somebody's face, that look of success, especially the younger children when they get something. I love that. I love that. At the moment, I see it in my own children and that has been fantastic. The gratitude from people when you've made a difference to their children, and as I said before, not just in maths and English, but their confidence, their independence. And maybe showing people who thought the kids couldn't do well in a particular subject that actually they can, if they've got the right system on board.