Kumon: sparking a lifelong love of reading

Being a strong reader is essential for Kelsey Davis’s law career. Kelsey, who studies a Master of Laws at Columbia University in New York City, reads, per week, an estimated 400 pages in prescribed texts.

“Obviously, in my job as a lawyer, reading is incredibly important, but it goes beyond that”, Kelsey says. “Communication is a fundamental skill in life and the written word is a key way that human beings communicate.”

“I think having great comprehension and communication skills is absolutely essential to success in life.”

Kelsey says studying and completing the Kumon English programme developed her passion for reading, her strong comprehension ability and her writing skills. Kelsey studied Kumon English in Canberra and completed the programme in 2006.

Kumon English develops a high level of reading comprehension ability in students. To inspire students to read widely, Kumon English contains more extracts from published texts than any other reading programme in the world.

Kumon also develops many transferable soft skills in students, like confidence, perseverance and self-learning. This is achieved because Kumon is individualised learning that allows students who are capable to study far beyond school grade level.

“In Kumon, you set your own goals and achieve them”, Kelsey says “You can study Year 10 work even if you’re only in year 8.”

“You can push beyond what you thought you could do before.”

Kelsey is in her second semester of her degree. During her first semester she studied human rights, civil procedure, financial statement analysis and corporate governance. Currently, she is taking a workshop on negotiation, a workshop on trial practice, an internship at the United Nations and a course in global financial regulation.