SHENMO MOTTO: Virtue & Wisdom

From nearly ten years of teaching experience of abacus mental math, I find that there are two key barriers in the learning process—“difficult” and “impatient”, and the two most critical qualities for breaking through the two barriers are all related to persistence: perseverance, concentration, toughness, as well as tolerance and failure immunity.

Shenmo has put forward the concept that only after abacus mental math learners experience the five stages of “basic understanding – skillful - proficient – excellent - automatic”, can they achieve high unity of “watching, listening and mental math calculating”, and even enter the “Zen” realm as scholars described. To unlock these five processes, one needs to break through these two barriers:

First, “difficult”: from “basic understanding” to “skillful”, the receptivity of each child is different, and the difficulty degree of knowledge is different, so some children will feel it “difficult”; since each child’s cognition regarding “difficult” is different, some children may retreat when encountering difficulties, and some will stick it out. For breaking through this barrier, teachers need to encourage children frequently to build their self-confidence.

Second, “impatient”: this barrier will appear in the process from “proficient” to “automatic”. Since children have comprehended the knowledge and they think they have done it well, they are complacent. If they learn in such state, they will feel bored, tiresome, and lack motivation; at this time, the effect of self-progress is not obvious, so they will get angry unreasonably, and they will be tired of continuing to learn, and then give up. At this stage, teachers should guide the children to correct mentality, get rid of utilitarian mentality, return to peaceful mind, and make them keep still and stay in meditation, and finally, help them to form the ability of attentiveness and capturing effective information.

The above two breakthrough points are like governor and conception vessels in martial arts novel, which must be unblocked if a martial artist wants to get superb martial arts at the highest level. This is the foundation and the necessary capacity.

In a TED speech, a Western scholar mentioned a kind of spirit: Grit, namely, determination, attentiveness and endurance. Grit is like a line connecting “difficult” and “impatient”; it is because Grit that “difficult” are broke through, and it is because the breakthrough of “difficult” that Grit is strengthened; simultaneously, it is because Grit that “impatient” are broken through, and it is because the breakthrough of “impatient” that Grit is strengthened. As an adult, career life is often caught in “difficult” and “impatient”.

Therefore, the process of “basic understanding – skillful - proficient – excellent - automatic” is the law and steps leading to success, which will unblock the governor and conception vessels of “difficult” and “impatient”. An unimpeded state leads to success, and success promotes Grit.

If we compare the process of “basic understanding – skillful - proficient – excellent - automatic” to GPS of the car, the Grit spirit is the engine that provides power continuously.

In education, especially early childhood education, we must attach great importance to the development of students’ determination, which is not only the key to develop their learning abilities, but also the coral educational thinking of Shenmo.