Essays
Essays on our thinking, research background and method. Existing posts on the English blog (createbase.net/en/blog/) are listed with links to the original articles.
All essays (9)
Why Math Needs Diagrams
Why Japanese arithmetic incidentally trains a cognitive skill that Western elite education leaves out.
Why I Built an Arithmetic Database
Classify problems not by name but by the thinking process: cue, operation, result. Why instructor-dependent teaching fails structurally, and the design of the database.
Education's Problems Are the Same Across Borders
A hypothesis: the pattern-memorisation trap observed in Japan is probably universal, because education is more universal than custom.
Four Forces That Froze the Cram-School Industry
Empty reforms, traditionalist self-protection, parents who cannot evaluate teaching, and short-term wins. Four structural forces that operate in any country.
Why This System Exists
The origin of CREATE BASE: what was broken about existing cram schools, and why starting from scratch was the only viable option.
Junior High Exams and Educational Abuse
When entrance-exam preparation crosses into harm. From inside the cram-school industry.
Major Cram Schools vs Individual Tutoring
Why neither the major cram-school model nor individual tutoring works as advertised, and what a third option looks like.
Quality, Quantity, Time — What Matters Most?
Direction over volume, time over both. Why hours of study do not predict results.
Overwhelmed by Junior High Exam Info?
A framework for filtering what actually matters in Japan's junior-high entrance exam, and ignoring the rest.