Is it true that the multiplication table isn't being taught anymore?

[Deja Q]

I heard this today and was floored.

They have kids doing everything with calculators! :wow:

How much influence does corporate america have in public schools?

We're raising a generation of retail clerk nitwits.

The same generation we pretend to herald as being our future, yadda yadda yadda, to cherish and make life better for.

America is already losing its place as the most tech-developed, amongst other things. I dare say corporate america doesn't mind if we lose our status, so long as the CEOs still get their paychecks.

Sorry, corporate america is one large anti-american traitorous gestalt. They gave up on America and its economy a long time ago.

[niceperson]

1. no

I know kids who are still learning them.

[childslibrarian]

2. i'm a teacher

No.

[Maple]

3. Is there some reason

you need to memorize them??

[EstimatedProphet]

15. Yes

Read a short story by Isaac Asimov called "The Feeling of Power" for the answer. He predicted this would happen. The story is in an anthology called Robot Dreams, available here

[rwheeler31]

4. No it is not true.

We teach it in third grade in Missouri.

[Reverend_Smitty]

5. Whaaaaa??????

That can't be true...As a person who is not that far removed from grade school (ok its been 12 years or so since I learned them) I am outraged, if it's true. I got to ask my aunt about this, she teaches 2nd grade maybe she can shed some light on this.

[genius]

6. The've moved multiplication back a year in this country

The schools think American kids are stupider than kids in schools in other countries.

[Reverend_Smitty]

7. Well if we treat them like a bunch of numbskulls....

then we will have a generation of numbskulls. We have to challenge our children to succeed, they are smarter than corporate America and the media gives them credit for. With the proper funding and instruction, there is nothing that they can't accomplish!

[lolly]

8. In some schools, yes

They don't teach the tables, they teach "math facts" in isolation.

e.g., today's lesson is: 6x3=18 4x9=36 11x1=11

I have no idea whatsoever why they think this is preferable to the concept of a table and memorizing all the "x2" then the "x3" etc. so that you can picture and understand the underlying process.

It may be swinging back now, but when my oldest were in elementary school (5 years + ago) everybody was gaga over "Mathland," or as my husband (a math major) called it, "Math Appreciation."

It was supposedly "real life" math, and instead of doing actual calculations, students measured ingredients for brownies and talked about shapes on a basketball court--all potentially worthwhile activities, but not an adequate curriculum by themselves.

[NashVegas]

14. I Disagree With That Last Part, Kind Of

Math came very easily to me in school and bored me to tears. I never had any belief it would be useful later on, even though that's how I got my NYS Regents diploma/scholarship. If I'd been a guy, I'd probably have wound up in a drafting class at some point and may have had a different attitude, but if at any point just one of my math teachers would have shown us real-world applications (beyond accounting), I might not have despised it and stopped taking courses as soon as I met my requirements.

That said, it scares me that some of my co-workers can't multiply something as easy as 2 x 180 in their heads.

[Fenris]

9. Not in most schools.

[Fridays Child]

10. There seems to be less emphasis on memorizing it, which is a shame...

...in my oipinion. It's the key to mathematical operations.

[Deja Q]

13. It all ties together

Once they learn the basic functions, they can think out the rest (e.g. 4x9=36 and so on) on their own.

It's no different than Assembly language vs C++. Assembly is harder to program, but the results are far more efficient and not as limiting when compared to C++. (which is why any computer operating system needs to be written in Assembly, AFAIC. The Microsoft Way of wasting resources is not acceptable.)

[baldguy]

11. Ever been in a store when the power went out?

Even with a calculator, cashiers can't figure the tax, they can't total it properly, and they can't make change.

[KoKo]

12. I don't know...as a "math challenged person" I don't see this is a bad...

Doesn't one still have to put in the number like 1 x 2 = 2 so you kind of get a "fundamental" idea there in that you have to know how to put it into the calculator.

I'm sure I'm in the minority...but I managed to work out my own math system after having many teachers who couldn't answer "WHY" to me about much of math...which includes percentages and Algebra which I managed to have enough knowledge to get into college on...but have never used...prefering to count on my fingers and toes and do contortions to bypass both of those. Including being able to make quilts with my hatred of geometry..by doing what "primatives" must have done thousands of years ago, to calculate getting the squares, triangles and rectangles all cut out to piece together into a pattern.

In my life...a calculator would have made things great in school and for tests...but unless kids at least grasp a "concept" of numbers and math and assigned values, then even calculators aren't able to help. I like to think of it as being able to use a computer and do everything here, I used to do in the public library...but I'm totally clueless about what makes a computer...compute. I get along okay, though.

Just mho from a math challenged person...

[samplegirl]

16. thank god i think every child should endure

being drilled with flash cards like we had to

[Placebo]

17. I Was Taught It, But I DON'T REMEMBER IT!

I can't do anything with a calculator anymore, eh :freak:

[LWolf]

18. No, that's total bullshit.

Of course, the "standards" in every state are different, but multiplication facts are there. We not only teach them, and require them to memorize their multiplication facts, we start in 2nd grade. They are supposed to have mastered all thru the 12s before the end of 3rd grade. That's in the state of California, with approximately 3 1/2 million elementary students.

There are plenty of ways to teach them; having taught 2nd and 3rd grades for about 7 years, I taught them in a variety of ways. As long as the kids understand what multiplication is, understand how to multiply, and memorize their facts, we've done our job, as far as multiplication goes. Third graders are doing multiplication with multiple digit addends and long division. Not with a calculator, with paper and pencil.