What?!

[Audley Strange]

I'm just watching the beeb news before heading out and the article was talking about them complaining about teaching 9 year olds rather than 11 year olds the twelve times table. Do they seriously wait that long? We were beginning to get introduced to abstract maths and geometry when I was at school at that age. Is this true, it seems a bit ridiculous?

[Robert_S]

I'm just watching the beeb news before heading out and the article was talking about them complaining about teaching 9 year olds rather than 11 year olds the twelve times table. Do they seriously wait that long? We were beginning to get introduced to abstract maths and geometry when I was at school at that age. Is this true, it seems a bit ridiculous?

They started me memorizing them in the 3rd grade IIRC. That would put them at 9-10 years old. I had a horrific time with until my folks sent me to a math program with a great old guy who showed me to look for patterns in numbers.

[Clinton Huxley]

I remember memorising times tables from about the age of 8, at primary school. I guess this kind of rote-learning went out of fashion for a bit.

[Robert_S]

I put the work in and much more, but there just wasn't enough to the bare numbers to make them all stick.

I was able to pick up the concepts of algebra pretty quickly though from overhearing other people in that math group, even though I wasn't even exposed to the concept of a variable in school until a course in BASIC in the 6th grade.

It still took me forever to memorize the multiplication table.

[Clinton Huxley]

Maybe I'm old-fashioned but I think there are some things children can discover for themselves, as is the current fashion, and some things that need to knocked into their heads.

[Audley Strange]

I put the work in and much more, but there just wasn't enough to the bare numbers to make them all stick.

I was able to pick up the concepts of algebra pretty quickly though from overhearing other people in that math group, even though I wasn't even exposed to the concept of a variable in school until a course in BASIC in the 6th grade.

It still took me forever to memorize the multiplication table.

I had and have difficulty with numbers, but that's hardly the point, in fact if anything it makes the point, if kids are not even being taught it until eleven that's just before secondary. What the fuck are they doing for seven years? You could teach them calculus in dead languages in that time.

[Audley Strange]

I remember memorising times tables from about the age of 8, at primary school. I guess this kind of rote-learning went out of fashion for a bit.

Really? I recall learning the 2 to 4 parrot fashion from about a month after I entered the place. I recall my last primary school teacher's frustration at my inability to grasp things like radius and circumference and diameter. Guess it was too much like hard work trying to teach kids.

[Robert_S]

I put the work in and much more, but there just wasn't enough to the bare numbers to make them all stick.

I was able to pick up the concepts of algebra pretty quickly though from overhearing other people in that math group, even though I wasn't even exposed to the concept of a variable in school until a course in BASIC in the 6th grade.

It still took me forever to memorize the multiplication table.

I had and have difficulty with numbers, but that's hardly the point, in fact if anything it makes the point, if kids are not even being taught it until eleven that's just before secondary. What the fuck are they doing for seven years? You could teach them calculus in dead languages in that time.

Actually, I think it would have been great to have a head start. But to get those concepts into the mind of a younger child would actually require talented teachers and smaller classrooms.

[Audley Strange]

I put the work in and much more, but there just wasn't enough to the bare numbers to make them all stick.

I was able to pick up the concepts of algebra pretty quickly though from overhearing other people in that math group, even though I wasn't even exposed to the concept of a variable in school until a course in BASIC in the 6th grade.

It still took me forever to memorize the multiplication table.

I had and have difficulty with numbers, but that's hardly the point, in fact if anything it makes the point, if kids are not even being taught it until eleven that's just before secondary. What the fuck are they doing for seven years? You could teach them calculus in dead languages in that time.

Actually, I think it would have been great to have a head start. But to get those concepts into the mind of a younger child would actually require talented teachers and smaller classrooms.

I was under the impression that they had seven years to teach them literacy and arithmetic so yes a young a start as possible would be best so those who have problems don't get foisted off to an uncaring secondary system where they are going to have difficulty keeping up.

I'm peeved but I'm having difficulty imagining its true.

[Robert_S]

I put the work in and much more, but there just wasn't enough to the bare numbers to make them all stick.

I was able to pick up the concepts of algebra pretty quickly though from overhearing other people in that math group, even though I wasn't even exposed to the concept of a variable in school until a course in BASIC in the 6th grade.

It still took me forever to memorize the multiplication table.

I had and have difficulty with numbers, but that's hardly the point, in fact if anything it makes the point, if kids are not even being taught it until eleven that's just before secondary. What the fuck are they doing for seven years? You could teach them calculus in dead languages in that time.

Actually, I think it would have been great to have a head start. But to get those concepts into the mind of a younger child would actually require talented teachers and smaller classrooms.

I was under the impression that they had seven years to teach them literacy and arithmetic so yes a young a start as possible would be best so those who have problems don't get foisted off to an uncaring secondary system where they are going to have difficulty keeping up.

I'm peeved but I'm having difficulty imagining its true.

Yeah, it's probably someone getting confused about a kid getting introduced to a subject and getting a chance to start learning it as opposed to being expected to have mastered it by an earlier age.

The former is awesome. The latter can be really stressful.

[PsychoSerenity]

Seems a bit odd to me that memorising times tables (which is not much different from learning to count) is done so late while they want to teach fractions, which are conceptually much more complicated, to five-year-olds.

Anyway I'm all in favour of making education more thorough for younger ages, but as usual the government seem to want to do it in the most disruptive way possible, including some suggestions that simply seem bizarre - "In secondary school, there will be a clearer sense of separate subjects of physics, biology and chemistry." - Why?

[Robert_S]

Seems a bit odd to me that memorising times tables (which is not much different from learning to count) is done so late while they want to teach fractions, which are conceptually much more complicated, to five-year-olds.

Anyway I'm all in favour of making education more thorough for younger ages, but as usual the government seem to want to do it in the most disruptive way possible, including some suggestions that simply seem bizarre - "In secondary school, there will be a clearer sense of separate subjects of physics, biology and chemistry." - Why?

I'll hazard a guess that it's politics trumping practical concerns. Either that or someone heard a buzzword and misunderstood the concept behind it.

[Bella Fortuna]

So glad my son had a Montessori education with respect to how much better they do at teaching mathematical concepts at a young age.

[Tero]

I know 12*12 but what use is the 12.* table? If you know them up to 10 you can do it all by pencil.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

I could add, subtract and knew my times tables up to 12x12 before I went to school at 5. I also knew the alphabet and could read and write. My parents taught me. 'Tweren't rocket science.

I know 12*12 but what use is the 12.* table? If you know them up to 10 you can do it all by pencil.

When I started school, there were 12 pence to a shilling in Englandshire. The 12 times table was a lot more important back then.