Psychology and mathematics — two scientific foundations for Abramson’s unique method.

The creator of a revolutionary math teaching method, Yakov Abramson, found his calling by accident which turned out to be life-changing.

Thus a sixth grader Abramson became a student of the famous Moscow school number 2 (currently a lyceum “Second school”). This school has always been academically oriented. There was no factory in its vicinity; instead, there were several institutions of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. In the mid-20th century in the USSR, schools were required to organize industrial training for students. The then director of the school Vladimir Ovchinnikov approached the Institute of Precision Mechanics and Computer Engineering with a request to help them organize training for the specialization of a radio fitter that was rare at that time.

Among Yakov Abramson’s school teachers were some well-known Moscow educators and simply outstanding personalities: Z.M. Fotieva, V.I. Tatarsky, V.M. Polonsky, and others.

Our geography teacher, Alexey Makeev, whom we called “Fantômas”, spent 15 years in GULAG. Apart from his main subject, he taught us orienteering. When we asked him: “Why would we need that?” he answered evasively: “It may come in handy.”

This attitude toward the subjects that seemed unnecessary at first was something that I will remember for the rest of my life.

Valentin Polonsky left a deep imprint on me. He taught us chemistry for some time. He was a person with a sense of humor, embracing life and everything interesting in it. He was also interested in psychology. We also had a teacher of “dances and good manners”. It was a bald and fat David Shlifer, who was as old as the 20th century itself. In his classes, we rarely danced, mostly we used to listen to his stories. It turned out, for example, that cuffs of the shirt had been used to write down names before the revolution. Or that at a ball, if a gentleman would ask a girl to dance for the third time, he had to be introduced to her parents and get their permission. The third time meant that he was romancing her.

This old man from “the times before” always introduced his stories by saying something like “as your grandmother probably used to tell you,” presuming that everybody’s grandmothers were empresses’ ladies-in-waiting or at least had graduated from an Institute for Noble Maidens.

His example taught me that you can get fascinated by a subject that you see as unnecessary if it is presented interestingly, and a teacher can create an inspiring atmosphere in class.”

Yakov never considered himself to be an outstanding student. Math was really hard for him. Here is what he remembers about his years in school:

As Yakov Abramson started his last 10th grade, he had to choose where to continue his education. Should he apply for the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics, for which his school was specifically preparing its students; or should he go for the Faculty of Psychology of the Lomonosov Moscow State University, where his grandfather, the famous Piotr Galperin, was a department chair. It was quite tempting to continue a family tradition. Besides, the prospective student Abramson was more interested in psychology, while mathematics frightened him with a perspective of having a very difficult five years at the university.

Sometimes he wanted to have a break from his studies. In the Soviet Union, there was no concept of a gap year that would allow people to try different activities after school to realize what they really wanted. There was, however, a necessity for it.

“I probably wouldn't have applied anywhere," Abramson recalls. “I was very tired after years of difficult studies in school. The idea of military conscription that I would have to face otherwise was for me quite abstract at that point and didn’t actually scare me.

But I was afraid to make my dear grandpa and grandma, who for some reason were seriously afraid of me being conscripted. So I had to apply, but where to? Math was pretty much the only subject that I mastered in school. And so the decisive factor was that if I were to apply to the Faculty of
Psychology, I would have to pass the exams in subjects that I was really bad at.

The exams for the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics were all in familiar subjects, and I would not have to feel guilt and shame. Besides, I wouldn’t want to be the “grandson of Piotr Galperin” for the rest of my life, so I chose the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics.”

Despite having made this choice, Yakov didn’t forget his passion for psychology and used it in creating his teaching method.

Studying at Moscow State University surprisingly turned out to be much easier than in school and way more interesting. There were also a lot of great professors able to inspire a student who influenced Abramson significantly. Among his mentors were I.R. Shafarevich, M.I. Vishik, V.A. Artamonos, and Y.S. Ilyashenko. But the biggest influence on Yakov had his scientific adviser E.M. Landis.

The discussions about pedagogy that Yakov had heard at home since he was a child, and the desire to change the school math curriculum, and make it more logical and consistent, gradually led him to design his own method.

Abramson Math is more than 30 years old. More than 900 students have studied with it. Yakov Abramson has taught math to children from Russia, the USA, Canada, Israel, Bulgaria, Switzerland, and England. He constantly receives positive feedback from the students and their parents. What is probably more important, Yakov Abramson also has the pleasure of seeing his students achieve great results in mathematics, IT, and other spheres.

Remarkably the history of Abramson Math included the predetermination, family traditions built in by professor Piotr Galperin, and the happy chance embodied in Yakov Abramson’s friend Dima, who brought him to the math school.

Разговоры о педагогике, которые Яков слышал в доме с самого раннего детства, в сочетании с желанием исправить школьный курс математики, делая его более логичным и последовательным, постепенно привели его к созданию собственного метода.

It doesn’t require not only any knowledge of the subject, but even active participation in the lesson. You just have to distribute the materials prepared by the regular teacher and collect the notebooks — that’s all. So I could have been a substitute for physics, chemistry, or English teachers, but I limited myself to math, where I could have shared some knowledge even if my English was far from perfect.

At 5:30 a.m. sharp, a phone would ring, and an automatic voice would notify me where the substitution was needed today. Using a paper map (there were no smartphones then), I had to orient myself and find the way to the school. It was good if it happened to be high school. It was easier there, they were almost adults, minding their own business: we don't touch you, and you don't touch us.

In middle school, there was usually anarchy — noise, hubbub, a lot of running around, and general mayhem. My role was not to let them kill each other and to at least try and control this horde. It is prohibited to leave children unattended in schools.

It was really boring to just sit at the table and doze off, although that was exactly what I was expected to do. Once I decided to teach an actual lesson instead of idly sitting around. But I failed to take into account that this class was the last one before the lunch break.

It has to be said that the lunch break is an important point in the US school schedule. Even before the dismissal bell, every free school worker headed by the director line up along the corridor that leads to the canteen. When the bell rings, all the doors open, and just like wild animals, school students rush out of them and run screaming, laughing, yelling, and pushing each other. The teachers try to follow them, quell them, put them in a column, and bring them to the canteen in a predetermined order transmitted by a speaker.

And so I am finishing the lesson, and the dismissal bell rings. But we haven’t finished solving one of the problems. All the students are at the blackboard, arguing loudly, and everyone is trying to share their ideas and write them on the board. One minute passes, then another and another… Suddenly the director comes in with two policemen, sternly glances over the class, and changes his countenance, his jaw drops down. “What’s going on here?” he asks either me or the students. “We’re solving the problem,” I answer. “We didn’t manage to solve it on time.”

You can understand why he was worried: the whole class was missing. Obviously, something is wrong!

“Fine,” the director says confusedly after a long pause, still not believing his eyes. Just in case, he reminded us, “Actually, it is a lunch break…” And he went away.

Luckily, there were no negative repercussions for me.

Shortly afterward, I realized that they had stopped inviting me for substitutions. I called the local department of education to ask what happened. I was told that I “had done something terrible in the classroom, and they had been investigating,” and that I had been suspended until the end of the investigation.

Sometime later, my phone rang again, and I was again invited to substitute for a teacher, just as if nothing had happened. I couldn’t help but ask the department what had been the issue, though.

“Nothing serious,” a girl in the department told me. “We got things straight. It wasn’t your fault. It was a misunderstanding. Please accept our apologies. But you don’t really have to actually teach our school students because that is not a part of your duties. You are not being paid for that.”

I skimmed through this volume, made myself familiar with the contents, and thought that would be enough. First lesson — quadratic trinomial and quadratic equations. That is an easy topic given that all students are school graduates who have been studying for twelve years, and they should have covered this topic as well.

So we reviewed it, looked at the special cases, and that was the end of the class. However, I had a second class with them as well. According to the program, we were supposed to simply keep applying the formula to specific examples of equations — substituting numbers into the formulas. But that was not how I had taught math in Moscow! Well, I thought that I could take a little step beyond the program and dive a little bit deeper into the topic.

But this time, when I asked, “Is it clear?” Everybody was silent. It turned out that it had been my last class at this college. I was called to the dean’s office and told I was “too good for this college.” They said that seven students had filed a complaint against me because I had broken the rules and gone beyond the textbooks, which was too much for them, and they could sue me…

I was glad I avoided the worst and got off with a simple discharge. But I also got valuable experience.

One girl from the newcomers was visibly lagging. It was clear that it was difficult for her, but she worked incredibly hard, was very diligent, and, as they say, ground away at her studies. Some of the other kids were making fun of her, and despite my best effort, I could not stop it.

Three years later, there was no major breakthrough. Of course, there was huge progress, but the girl's position within the group stayed the same. She still was the weakest, the last to understand the solutions to the problems, had a hard time solving problems in front of the class, while her classmates had already figured it out a long time ago, etc.

After the end of the eighth grade, I talked to her and suggested to stop torturing herself and change tracks within the school. I told her I was worried about her psychological condition, given her relations with other children. She followed my advice and changed tracks and soon the schools. I lost her trace and have never seen or talked to her again.

Many years later, I learned from my other former students that she had stayed in mathematics, graduated from the university with a relevant major, and became a mathematician! And one of her brightest groupmates, who was a very talented boy, prize-winner of math olympiads, winner of an international Olympiad in Computer Science, has graduated from the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics, defended his doctoral thesis, but has chosen a well-paying job in IT.

This is a good lesson to me and everyone who reads it — do not jump to conclusions, even if you are basing them on the long-term observations of children’s successes in school. Motivation and persistence could be more important factors in the long term than the quickness of thought and the ability to grasp abstract ideas at an early age.

Once I was running late for a lesson — my taxi came later because of bad weather. When I reached the school, the lesson was already going on for seven minutes — my colleague helped me out. When I entered the classroom, and my colleague went away, the students sighed with relief.

I asked them: “Why are you smiling? The lesson is not canceled.” They replied: “Hooray! There will be no math!” I asked: “What do you mean no math? What do you think we are doing here?” It turned out that they thought that math was something they did with that other strict teacher, and my class was just problem-solving for fun and entertainment.

Mathematics is a source of enjoyment for me as well. Instead of barbecuing somewhere outdoors, I prefer to spend my holiday at some seminar talking with my colleagues and looking for new interesting problems.

The curriculum must be diverse, so it will not get boring for children. That is one of the secrets to making your subject interesting.