COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY PETER BRADSHAW IN THE
GUARDIAN
I’ve never known my
times tables. Frankly, who needs them?
"The ministerial
diktat to make children learn multiplication by rote is silly. Surely there are
more important things"
I'm sorry, but I could not agree less, and I think your
words reflect a mighty poor educational philosophy.
Many North American "educators" have taken this
view and the quality of the thinking behind it spreads and contaminates much of
public education.
The simple fact is that North America graduates millions who
have almost no intellectual skills and no talents which are marketable.
I did some tutoring with youngsters some years ago, and
learning the times tables - which most did not know from the lax schools - was
a first assignment.
I'm sorry to learn that Britain has some similar attitudes,
albeit decades after North America's public education fiasco.
I very much believe a lot of what has happened in North
American education has nothing to do with the students or their futures.
It has to do with making the jobs of administrators and
teachers easier. In most of our public schools we have social promotion, and
all kids advance whether they have learned anything or not.
If you are really concerned with children, you'll make sure
they learn all essentials, not dismiss essentials as boring "rote"
stuff.
The times tables are essential, much like the alphabet.
It is so easy to dismiss anything that can be labelled as
learning "by rote," but the truth is that is the only way to learn
some valuable knowledge. Very few have photographic memories.
The times tables, of course, enable you to do
multiplication, but they also enable you to do division, and they are
fundamental to understanding elements of geometry or elementary probability and
still other matters.
