In article ,
Martin wrote:
On Wed, 26 Jan 2011 22:57:05 +0000, Sacha wrote:
On 2011-01-26 16:40:08 +0000, kay said:

But I think learning times tables by rote up to 12 x 12 is the wrong
place to start!

Worked and continues to work, for me.

The difference between our generation and the young ones, is that we can do
mental arithmetic. Tables are part of the basic tools needed to do this.
Not necessarily. I didn't rely on them and still don't. When my
elder daughter had trouble with her tables, I taught her the methods
I used and said that I didn't give a damn how she got the answer,
provided that she got the right one in under a second. She did,
and got a first-class engineering degree.

There's more than one way to kill a cat.

Nick says people can use a calculator, but I have yet to see anybody doing this
in a supermarket, for example. Our two kids did arithmetic using a calculator
at school. I don't think they even own one nowadays.

If you can't learn tables and can't learn the mathematical tricks,
then any sane person would buy one.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.