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CB Education and Training Kumon Children's education horror story
Kumon

Kumon review: Children's education horror story 20

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11:00 pm EST
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Children's education horror story. Looking back, I feel stupid ever enrolling my children at Kumon. Every time I picked up my girls at the centre, the owner Nicole Smith was away from the classroom yapping away on her cell phone. She had little to no patience with the kids, raised her voice at kids who approach her with questions. The problem is that there's only one teacher and a bunch of high school kids working as staff. Other parents observed exactly the same thing. There were other things, like staff being generally impatient with the little ones and even comparing siblings out loud (my two girls). Whenever I tried to address any issues with the owner, Nicole Smith, she was absolutely defensive, insinuated that she had been doing this for so long she didn't need pointers. I took out my daughters from the centre. This was absolutely an abysmal experience. Nicole Smith apparently thinks that parents don't get a say in their children's education - because she's "the expert". Parents, let me be absolutely clear: if you have issues with your tutor, you should be able to bring it up in a reasonable tone and have a mature discussion about it. Anything less than that is absolutely unacceptable- and that's not even touching on the fact that Nicole Smith pretends there's no problem with her or her staff or her dingy centre. Don't be fooled by looks of her website, its just a facade. There are way too many issues Kumon Math & Reading centre of Hamilton West End and Nicole Smith has demonstrated she's not interested in fixing them.

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20 comments
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Hamada1989
, US
Aug 12, 2023 9:05 am EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Yesterday, my children were expelled in front of the students and treated in a bad way, and my eldest daughter came home in a state of hysteria, and the reason for not paying the monthly fees, which was 24/8, and we are now on the 4th, only 10 days have passed since that, and I have a financial deposit with the them

Now my daughter

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Deeptidass
London, GB
Sep 20, 2022 1:17 pm EDT

Kindly close the kumon at the high road. Not qualified and unprofessional behaviour.

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Lori Collins
, US
Jun 25, 2020 1:43 am EDT

That sounds incredibly awful, most tutors/teachers I know would at least try to understand the situation before just disregarding the concerns. We have had good luck with tutors but we're trying to save costs so we have opted for online options. So far our favorite one with the kids is Beestar, they really enjoy it and we haven't had any issues with the worksheets and the websites. The kids also love being part of the math competition when they can.

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JLin24
, US
Dec 04, 2016 5:05 pm EST

EAST LONGMEADOW, MA (WGGB/WSHM) - There is shocking news coming out against the Kumon Franchise owner of a Kumon Math & Reading tutoring center who is now facing charges of sexual assault and rape.

Kumon franchise owner Jimmy Chang, 32, of East Longmeadow was arrested in Manchester, CT. He is facing 12 counts of second degree sexual assault of minors.

Back in March, the 17-year-old victim went to the Manchester, CT police department and said Chang allegedly manipulated her into a long-term sexual relationship.

The victim reportedly told police that from 2012 to 2014, Chang would pick her up from her school or home to perform sexual favors.

The teenager also said that at times, Chang would have her meet him at his Kumon learning center - Kumon Math and Reading Center in Longmeadow - where he would provide alcohol to her prior to sex.

Besides being a Kumon instructor, Chang is also a youth pastor at a church in Agawam, which he and the victim both attended.

The girl said Kumon franchisee Chang would allegedly ask her to dress like a "school girl" and meet him at that church where other sexual encounters would occur.

According to court documents, the victim told Chang that she "wanted to wait - to save my virginity [..] as a Christian you are supposed to save your virginity. He responded 'do you really want to?'"

During his arrest, Chang reportedly told police, "I realized I messed up." As a Kumon instructor he admitted to have taken advantage of his role at the Kumon Math & Reading center a.k.a Kumon learning center, and committed sexual crimes against the Kumon student.

Chang appeared in court in Connecticut Tuesday where he was bonded out of jail.

The victim's identity is not being released.

For more details see: http://www.westernmassnews.com/story/29718919/east-longmeadow-man-arrested-on-sexual-assault-charges-in-ct

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suprajakrishnan
, US
Aug 30, 2016 7:17 am EDT

At Sawmill, Columbus branch they have middle / high school kids tutoring the elementary children. the senior kids are not paying proper attention to the younger kids. Head incharge never pays any attention to complaints. keen enough to admit more children. More children means more money to them. Cancellation charge - when no service is offered, don't understand why they want to loot our money saying as cancellation charge. They don't do anything specific for us, instead they reuse the material and time for the sake of others.

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kmkk4
, NZ
Nov 17, 2015 12:17 am EST
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Hi all thanks for raising these pointers and problems.
We are in New Zealand and it is pretty much the same story.
When my child asks for help she is told you should know this just work it out your self and if you can't then move on to the next question.
Above all my child informed me today that her center owner/teacher is beating the kids! with books and pencils.
We are in the process of pulling her out.
I strongly advise against putting you child through this UN-necessary traumatice experience.

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Paul Naturo
, US
Mar 07, 2015 1:49 pm EST

Any school having history of sex crimes and child molestation like Kumon is a threat to children. Education institutions should be rigorously screened by state agencies. All Kumon teachers should be put through rigorous psychological tests to check if they have perverted minds or are closet pedophiles. Parents should provide their children with cell phones with 911 speed dial set to call the police at the slightest inconvinience by the Kumon tutor. Education Board should ban all these dirty Asian programs from the United States.

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priya patel
, FR
Feb 28, 2015 8:09 pm EST
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I wouldn't put my kids at Kumon because of it has a bad reputation of child molestations by the Kumon teachers and other high school students in Kumon centers. There was this one Kumon teacher here in Chicago who used to have an affair with one of the Kumon students' dad.

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wendyt39
, GB
Feb 23, 2015 8:07 pm EST

We found the Kumon program to be bad for our children. The constant over charging of our credit card by the Kumon center owner convinced us that it was a scam in addition to the slow progress and constant repitition of the same material. Stay away from this program. It is a scam.

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day23
london, GB
Nov 09, 2014 1:22 pm EST
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I recently came across this site www.kumonstyle.com You will find that the worksheets on this website is exactly kumon worksheets.

It's amazing really. I use to take my daughter to kumon but couldn't afford it anymore. So I started looking around. I downloaded the kumon worksheet on www.kumonstyle.com then I made a lot of photocopies for my daughter so she can repeat it over and over just like they do at kumon centres. It has saved me a lot of money!

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Fiona S.
, US
Oct 30, 2014 1:52 am EDT
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So much of our money is being spent on workbooks and time is wasted. We are not satisfied with the program as to what they have to offer, so we switched over to Beestar which was referred by his teacher. We found out that Beestar actually offers free math and multiple subjects, too. Beestar offers a manageable pace of workload and motivates them to do better by awarding Beestar honor rolls. Also, we love that we can check our child's progress thru online management which helps alot! We definitely recommend Beestar to those who do not want to waste time and money on programs! If you are frustrated with Kumon like us before, you should check out Beestar to find out yourself!

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Fiona S.
, US
Oct 25, 2014 11:44 pm EDT
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I agree that Kumon is such a waste of money and time for our children! So much of our money is being spent on workbooks and time is wasted. We are not satisfied with the program as to what they have to offer, so we switched over to Beestar which was referred by my sister. Thinking that it would be the same as Kumon, we did some research and guess what?! Beestar actually offers free math and multiple subjects, too. Beestar offers a manageable pace of workload and motivates them to do better by awarding Beestar honor rolls. Also, we love that we can check our child's progress thru online management which helps alot! We definitely recommend Beestar to those who do not want to waste time and money on programs that do not show significant results!

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Fiona S.
, US
Oct 25, 2014 5:03 am EDT
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I agree that Kumon is such a waste of money and time for our children! So much of our money is being spent on workbooks and time is wasted on worksheets whom we had to help them with rather than teachers/tutors at the center! We are not satisfied with the program as to what they have to offer, so we switched over to Beestar which was referred by my sister. Thinking that it would be the same as Kumon, we did some research and guess what?! Beestar actually offers free math and offers assistance in multiple subjects, too. Beestar offers a manageable pace of workload and motivates them to do better by awarding Beestar honor rolls. Also, we love that we can check our child's progress thru online management which helps alot! We definitely recommend Beestar to those who do not want to waste time and money on programs that do not show significant results!

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WV2007
, FR
Oct 17, 2014 7:30 pm EDT

I am an instructor in Toronto Canada and agree whole hearted that Nicole Smith is a narcissistic maniac. The sick woman craves attention and will do anything including spread lies and frame people through her wicked games towards her end. She has a sick following of sickos some are based in the United States, like Connie Schmidt from New Jersey and others. Every instructor in Ontario wishes this sick woman is institutionalized along with her followers.

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Lester_Kasim
, CA
Jun 07, 2014 11:17 pm EDT

What floors me is how the parents are so concerned about the test scores and academic grades, and not concerned about their children. Forget the test scores, I’d be worried my child had been raped or sexually assaulted. How could these children at Kumon Math & Reading centers have endured being molested years? What happened?Parents need to understand that there really are weird people in the world and Kumon Math & Reading centers are no exception (some look like your mom’s best friend), and yes, they will molest and rape your kids. That will leave your children scarred for a lifetime. These Kumon franchisees and tutors are not just pedophiles but sociopaths and psychopaths. There’s probably some hormonal thing involved too…I'm sure.Parents need to understand what a pedophile sociopath is in order to protect their own kids. TOO MANY PARENTS ARE WAY TOO TRUSTING with their kids lives especially of the Cat-women who own and tutor at Kumon Math & Reading centers. They can’t imagine, that the Asian hags at Kumon Math & Reading (that act like their friends), woud molest and rape their kids. But they do. And that’s the reason it’s not a fluke that LOTS of kids were molested and victims of sex crimes at Kumon Math & Reading.

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AnonymousT
, US
May 29, 2014 3:40 am EDT

My children and I have had the worst experience at the Kumon center here in Steeplechase, Houston. In my opinion the woman who owns and runs this Kumon learning center needs a serious mental checkup because her behavior surely must qualify her for the "Wackadoodle Hall of Fame." The Kumon learning center is noisy and out of control. There are more students than there are
people to teach or help them. Every so often the staff vanish and one can see new staff. No one can stand the owner. Totally unprofessional.

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AnonymousT
, US
May 29, 2014 3:37 am EDT

I'm angry that after 8 months of spending money and time at Kumon Math & Reading in Rancho Cucamonga - California, my son is exactly where he was 8 months back.The program is useless and did not improve his school grades.

All he did was useless worksheets, which cost no more than 50 cents a month but I was paying over $100 per month. This program is useless and very expensive. It doesn't help. My son developed poor self-esteem after Kumon.

The Rancho Cucamonga Kumon center owner, sweet talks you into believing that Kumon will work wonders.Do not fall for those lies.

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Tabor J
, US
Mar 28, 2014 9:15 pm EDT

Our children attended Kumon Math & Reading in Plano TX for 1 year before I had to pull them out for a number of problems. First, staff turnover, and poor teachers. Almost all of the staff had fully turned over in 1 year at the school. They did not perform background checks on staff. I went onlline to see: http://dfps.state.tx.us and found that Kumon is not approved or licensed. That should never be tolerated by any parent. We also found that Kumon is a franchise and the franchise owner is the director of the center. I believe this is more due to money problems than anything else given the number of families that have left (we know many).The problems with Kumon in my opinion centered around the lack of interest in the franchise owner in being on-site. Many time, I observed the staff letting the kids run wild. When I would drop them off or pick them up I would be disappointed with the lack of supervision, or the mess that would be around at the end of day. Removing my kids from this tutoring center was one of the best recent decisions I have made for them in 2013. They are happy with their tutor whom we hired to come home and tutor them. That is much more than I could say when they were attending this fraudulent program. Worse still is the Kumon of Plano center.

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VKJ23
, US
Mar 28, 2014 8:57 pm EDT

We had our two older children enrolled in Kumon learning in Bartlett, IL but we pulled them out of Kumon after hearing about the many child molestation and sexual abuse cases at Kumon in the media. I believe that by having my children go to Kumon, would be indirectly tolerating the harm caused to children elsewhere.

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Nanaki Lee
, NL
Mar 06, 2014 10:22 pm EST

You are very right in your assessment of Kumon Math & Reading by your experience at the hands of Nicole Smith at the Hamilton West End center. We had similar experience with the Instructor of the Kumon center that we used to send out son to in Detroit, MI. Your experience pretty much summed up the kind of experience we had. Thank you for highlighting these issues.