Our Children Are In Danger!

We strive to keep our children safe and healthy, but there are some dangers that we may never see coming.

It has been said that the mind is a muscle that must be exercised as often possible, yet ever since calculators were permitted in the classroom, children began to lose their ability to add in their heads. Arithmetic is critical to our children's future employment, and to our economy. Virtually every aspect of our lives depends on arithmetic: retail sales, restaurants, banking, etc.

A skill this important should not be left to a phone app. However, teaching students to practice arithmetic is very challenging.

Of greater concern is children's obsession with texting (sometimes even texting each other while they are sitting in the same room). Increasingly they are losing their ability to talk to each other and to hold conversations. This can lead to feelings of isolation, loneliness, depression and can lead to developing anti-social behaviors.

However, getting children to put down their phones and actually talk to each other is even more challenging.

Members of the Club Rotario de Playa Coronado have adapted a 200 year-old game that helps accomplish both of these objectives.

Students and teachers learn how to play COUNTERS DOWN, taught by members of the Rotary Club of Playa Coronado

COUNTERS DOWN is an interactive game that teaches arithmetic and helps develop social interaction skills.

It is a simple wooden box with twelve flip-down counters and a pair of dice – yet children love playing this game for hours (just don’t tell them that they are practicing mathematics!!) It is exciting to see them laughing and talking with each other (and their phones are turned off).

Testing is underway with eight schools to conclusively demonstrate that students' arithmetic scores improve after playing the game for less than two months!

Rotary is HELPING TEACHERS TEACH by having games built and donated to mathematics teachers in Panama.

Hand-crafted by local workers, these games are also creating much needed local jobs.

Our club will hold a National Championship every October with the top three students from each school competing. The overall and the champions will be awarded university scholarships or other prizes.

Join us as we give the gift of education - the gift that will last a lifetime.

HELP THE TEACHERS TEACH.

Donate a game to a school today by visiting www.countersdown.org.