DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

It seems to me that there is still some memorization of times tables to be done here. You have to be able to multiply 30x10, 30x2, 5x10, and 5x2. It might be a simpler table than what we memorized, but there's still memorization involved as I see it.

Memory is not exercised any more. Yes, everyone uses calculators now (including me). And we used to remember things like phone numbers. Now our phone remembers the number and we only have to tell it the name. (By the time we get to my age we sometimes have trouble remembering the name, also). Of course, back in the prehistoric past when I was starting to remember phone numbers, they were four digits. For some of the rural people it might have been something like "3 long and a short". When I was a teenager we started to have to use the office code as well as the 4 digits so that was 7 digits. It has only been in the last 20 years or so that we had to use the area code as well, even for local calls.

Edit: There is one requirement for memory now. Passwords.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

34 years in Jr & Sr High, history, geography, Ed & Career Planning etc.
I once covered a math class during my conference/prep period and a student who was also in my history class asked me for help. He had been absent the day before and a new kind of problem was introduced. It happened to be something I remembered how to do. I grabbed a piece of paper and wrote out every step with explanations - all 4 steps.

The boy and a couple of others who were watching looked up the answer in the back of the book and said I was right. But how did I do that in only 4 steps, the book used 11 steps.

At that time most kids (1980s) still learned the multiplication tables so I went over the problem verbally with them. They were delighted at the saved work (and paper, this was East LA and paper costs money). A couple of days later the boy who was in my class told me the teacher made them all go back to the 11 step way because "that is how the book teaches it". He also told me the teacher didn't really know the multiplication tables and often used a calculator when multiplying or dividing.

My daughter was not made to memorize the tables either. And she was an honors, gifted, AP and International Baccalaureate student. 11th and 12th grade she went to a middle college high school where they did 4 periods of HS classes and 2 college classes (the school shared a campus with a community college) - Actually she talked her way into 6 HS and 3 college classes and had so much college credit that when she went to UCLA after only 10 months she was made a senior. But she always struggled with the math heavy subjects because she had not nailed the basics and multiplication tables. A's in the lab stuff and aced the practical exams (PreMed). Same thing in medical school now, aces the practicals and struggles with the paper/math stuff.

These so called new methods cripple students in many subjects. During my 34 years I saw these new fads come and go more than once = fail, change it a little and rename it, fail again. One professor I had for some post graduate education classes was on the state curriculum committee and he told us in class that the "New Math" that had failed in the classroom was getting that treatment and would be introduced under the tentative working title of "The New New Math."

And just because I did not teach math or science doesn't mean I didn't have friends who were math and science teachers who kept me up to date on the ideas in their subject fields. And by the time I retired one of my former students was the Gifted Program Coordinator on my campus - he would tell me stories of "new methods" that failed and left otherwise good students confused that made me want to give lessons in creative cursing.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

And I used to show my students how to multiply or divide by 10, 100 etc by just moving the decimal point. Some of them didn't believe it would work and asked their math teachers. One young math teacher stopped me in the cafeteria and said she had never heard of doing it that way. ??????

repleo Loc: Boston

You got two bob!!!! All I got was 'six of the best' for each mistake. That teaching method worked wonderfully and was a lot cheaper. I had to learn the tables and be able to sing them in two languages.
I'm serious!!
And yes, I can still do them in my head too.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

At one elementary school I went to, if you were caught talking when you weren’t supposed to, you had to write out multiplication tables 100 times. I spent some number of nights until midnight writing the tables. You can bet I’ll never forget them!

rmorrison1116 Loc: Near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania

I didn't say there was anything wrong with it; stop putting words where they were not.
All I said is it's a visual technique used to teach children the relationship between the numbers in a mathematical equation without having to memorize the times tables. There's more to learning than just memorization. There's also understanding, which obviously, you don't.

rmorrison1116 Loc: Near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania

how about progressive addition.

dancers Loc: melbourne.victoria, australia

I did the "times table" at primary school and still use it every day. They used to call it "mental arithmetic"LOL

It is still wonderful.

cincykid

Some of you older Hogs may remember Tom Leher of "That was the Week That Was" circa 1965. New math was really new back then.
Leher had his own unique way of explaining it. His other songs on Youtube are still great today. https://youtu.be/UIKGV2cTgqA

johneccles Loc: Leyland UK

Is that the state of the US education system?
That video goes a long way to explain many things.

That Video was 3 mins and 9 sec long, I did it in my head in about 3.9 seconds.

Burtzy Loc: Bronx N.Y. & Simi Valley, CA

Most importantly, what brand of coffee did the guy on the right use. The system on the left is just a silly new math idea.

John N Loc: HP14 3QF Stokenchurch, UK

Took me about 2 seconds. Old school.

This is why they want to get rid of cash, queues in the bank are going to get longer!

PRETENDER Loc: Micanopy,Florida

What about the ones that have a hard time making change when they staring at a cash register that is telling them what to do/

Tommy II Loc: Northern Illinois

👍 Exactly. That’s how I do it all the time.

PRETENDER Loc: Micanopy,Florida

What about the ones that have a hard time making change when they staring at a cash register that is telling them what to do.