My school is very diverse.  There are students in my class whose parents come from all over the world, and those who were raised right in here in the bay area.  Each student comes with an amazing and rich world of different experiences, as well as the common experiences of living in our big suburb and going to this school.  My students and their families come from Brazil, China, Mexico, El Salvador, India, Afghanistan, among others.  The fact that we are all different and that we all have different, valuable experiences to share is just inherent in who we are as a school culture.

This week, we are reading a story this week that is in the adopted curriculum called "The Abacus Contest". It is about a young girl who is worried about not doing well in her abacus contest at school, where students do fast calculations using an abacus. I have an abacus that I bring in to show the students, so they know what one is. In years past, I have had several students who have seen one and used one, and usually one or two who have learned how to use them in 'Chinese school' that they go to on the weekend.

Tony, the substitute custodian who is an older man who was born and raised in China, noticed the story we were reading when he came in to collect old, boxed books.  Later in the day he said he could bring in his Abacus calculator for me to show the class.  He said he has used the calculator since he was a child and uses it today to do any calculations, and that it is faster than an electronic calculator.  I was enthusiastic and told him to please bring it and share with the class, as well as the other fifth grade classroom.  I was sure the students would love to learn about it. 

Yesterday, Tony brought in the Abacus.  He told the class about being born in Hong Kong and learning how to use it when he was a young child, and that the abacus he has was his grandfathers.  He showed them how to add, subtract and multiply, quickly and easily, using just three fingers.  The students were all impressed and wanted to learn more.  I was inspired.  

Here, in the face and hands of the substitute custodian, I made a connection.  In the US educational system, we do not teach the use of the abacus, and we do not use it to do calculations.  We do, however, compare ourselves to cultures that do.  Cultures that use the abacus have a lot of experience with what numbers mean - they SEE the five and the tens, not just write down numerals for them.  They get used to manipulating beads that represent numbers, not just memorizing formulas and doing pencil and paper calculations.  I wonder how our math achievement would change if our students had that same exposure, over the long term, to the visual representation of number.  Would it change how students saw the numbers?  Would it change how reasonable students thought a particular answer was?  

 A huge light bulb went off in my head.   I want a class set of Abaci.  Now I just have to figure out when I am going to write a grant.