Crewton Ramone

I was taught by several mentors, who I will name as appropriate. The method I have had the best results with was taught to me by a man byrnthe name of Vernon J. Mortensen: Jerry.

Jerry Mortensen isrnquite a colorful character, and his story can fill pages and pages ifrnnot books. Please indulge/forgive me while I pause for a fully abridged version of my background and relationship with/to Mortensen Math. Suffice it to say Jerry started teaching young students after winning a scholarship to Italy to learn under Maria and Mario Montesorri. By his own admission he was more interested in going to Italy than the scholarship or teaching. When he came back he found he wasn't exactly suited to teach young kids.

He tried to get out of the commitment he made which was a 2 year stint teaching in exchange for the scholarship...they wouldn't let him out of it. So he decided that if hernwas stuck with the position that he would at least cause no harm...hernmight not teach them anything but he wasn't going to try to be an authoritarian while trying to herd cats...“the little buggers were driving me crazy.”

Little kids always ask why...often repeatedly.

Long story short he found quiet by accident that children learn best through play. And that you could play with kids and teach them math...he went on to take the Montessori method and the math manipulatives they had and improve and refine them. He basically picked up the ball and ran with it. You play but there's a way to play and direct their discovery of math concepts.

Much to the chagrin of many Montessori purists. From my experience the Mortensen Math method is indeed an improvement and the most effective way to teach math I have ever seen. Jerryr Mortensen got his certificate from Mario Montesorri, I got mine fromr Jerry Mortensen, sort of. Kind of.

I was never given a “formal education” per se by Jerry Mortensen, but I have completed many hours of study and training that were about as formal as it gets. 10 hour trainings and 30 hour trainings, and then I graduated to Math seminars where I did the teaching and then was brutally critiqued by Jerry and other trainers. Brutal means brutal, they pulled no punches and didn't try to spare my feelings. I am well known for being a say anything kind of guy who is blunt and a straight shooter. I got a healthy dose of myrnown medicine.

Then I was sent on the road...and my real education began. “Why” is a question that is on quite a few people's minds as itrntu s out. Fortunately I had already asked a lot of these 'why questions' myself. But quite often I got questions I couldn't answer and that evening was on the phone with Jerry getting answers, along with reporting sales figures and attendance and so on.

I went to 3 cities a week and did seminars selling Mortensen Math kits and training. These seminars ranged in size from 7 people in a room to 750rnin a room and everything in between. In larger cities 200 wasn't uncommon, but I'd say the mean was around 50-100. Here I got every kind of question you can imagine. I also heard math horror stories; sometimes met some very interesting men who taught physics or higher math; other times I met home schoolers who were fed up with the resources available at the time. It has since gotten better but not much. Here is where I earned my wings. I also noticed some patternsrnamong the people who came that turn out to very common experiences ofrnstudents and teachers of the mathematics. More on this elsewhere. (Ain't hypertext great?) But I try to remember that you are unique just like everyone else.

After this I did "a few" seminars forr Mortensen Math where we trained teachers, and then I eventually moved on the the level of Master Trainer, where I trained trainers to train teachers. To do this you have to know how to use the system but you also have to know why you do the things you do so that they understand how important it is to do things a certain way. The journey continues because I constantly get answers to questions which of course leads tornmore questions, leading to some to observe “the more you know the dumber you get.” I have exponentially more questions about how children learn and how the brain works and why we came up with math in the first place tha I did when I started this odyssey.

I also have run tutoring businesses out of my house off and on for years, and looked into many programs and methodologies for the teaching of the mathematics. In this time I have taught out of many text books and met students of every skill level imaginable, from "learning disabled" tornone student who was in college at the ripe old age of 12. One and all taught me as much about teaching math as I taught them about math and somehow I tricked their parents into paying me for playing blocks with their kids and had fun doing it.