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Right Brain Riffmetic

10th Sep 2014
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Why am I'm learning to use the abacus?

Well, it all started through an activity to publicise a new "Social Start-up" programme, were a local artist, Chris Green kindly made one for me. It is made from cardboard and can be set up in 6-bead Chinese style or the 5-bead Japanese style.

It started off as an attraction to our Accounting firm's stall but as more people came and asked about it I found myself attempting to actually demonstrate how  shopkeepers use it to do quick arithmetic on a daily basis. I wasn't too hot, so had to get learning.

Here's a picture of the abacus's first time out, at the Umbrella Fair in Northampton in August.

The Super-Abacus at the Umbrella fair August 2014

And now, slowly slowly I am learning how to use it.

I took it out for its second outing last week at the bardic Picnic in Delapre Abbey in Northampton where I demonstrated a little more than the first time out. The kids liked it a lot, you can see some footage if you take a look at the video  linked to in the picture below:

Bardic Picnic abacus

Learning how to work an abacus has made me start thinking about the learning process, and how intuitive using the abacus is. It seems that it uses a different part of the brain than the part I have been using for our modern day methods.

The reason I say this is that I notice people can do incredibly fast maths by picturing the abacus in their mind. So I think it's visual rather than technical therefore, a right brain method, and thus quicker. I'm fascinated!

The next outing is planned at our local library, I'll keep you posted!

Paul Connolly is the director of The Tax Shop Group Ltd. A full service accountancy practice in Northampton, UK, specialising in Social Enterprise.

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