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Times tables & education today

It seems odd that very recently the government announced that eleven year olds are now going to be taught the times table that is from 2x times up to 12x times although I went to a secondary modern school which basically taught every thing including the times table, which we had learned long before the age of eleven, prayers were the first thing in the morning and then followed, reading, writing, history geography, science, singing, and then swimming, and sports, including religious education, a broad spectrum of diversified subjects. The outcome was we had a balanced view of life and the world in general, also we learned to look out for less unfortunate boys and girls who might need extra help over coming some of the schools teaching programmes. The teachers came into the room with the books or whatever they were going to teach us, except for the science room where we made our way to that room, where as now the children are walking around carrying bags of books wandering from class to class, so it seems the education system is going backwards not forwards. So is it any wonder that our children are getting further and further behind, other ethnic groups who stick to regular and well practised and well tried systems which isn't being changed every five minutes, much like our own methods, which need to go back to the old and tried methods which worked.


What are your thought and views on the way our children are being taught today ??


Created By on 07/01/2016

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Collie
8th Aug 2018 02:12:49 (Last activity: 6th May 2020 03:39:39)
1
Thanks for voting!
I know this has been said many times but, it is a whole new world out there today and our children and grandchildren have to be taught to deal with today's world.

When I was a young mother my hobby was calligraphy. I bought the finest Mont Blanc fountain pens and worked away on my writing. It was such a change from the shorthand and typewriter during my working days. That would have been the mid 1980's. Fountain pen v IBM Golf Ball typewriter! I was harking back to the past with the fountain pen / Quill, what do you think?

I have a feeling that the following generations will drop the use of a writing implements completely.
Writing and calculating will be carried out on computer. How alien would that be to you and I?

Today, August 8th. 2018 we have automobiles that are self-drive! I wish I could live forever just to see where it all ends up.

Signed Collie a 60+ going on 30+ and loving it.
Response from Collie made on 10th Aug 2018 03:18:03
Hi Lionel,

Your comments are full of wisdom and I agree with each and every one but, I cannot help wondering what Silver Surfers thought in past generations. What did they say about these bottles of gas and what on earth is a tilley lamp, these new inventions will never work and when they fail what will we have? back to horse to drawn ploughs, sleep during dark, and work in the daylight. Nothing has changed Lionel each and every generation thought their experiences were the best, why? because they could only see as far as their limited experience in life, they knew no better. I leave it in our children's hands, I have no choice and can only hope they make a good job of it, whatever "it" is.

Our lifespan is tiny, I wish it was otherwise but face it, our children carry the future in THEIR hands we are in the passenger seat.

I would love to read your views on above.
Response from Collie made on 12th Aug 2018 00:34:13
First and foremost I offer my heartfelt condolence on the passing of your step-son. Nineteen years old, a baby in my eyes, and to think that he felt the need to live up to other people's expectations.
That sickens me to the core.

Lionel I can only agree with you one hundred percent, the world, i.e. manmade world is in tanners
and mankind is responsible for that, we (you and I) are a tiny speck in the making of what we are now living, that is why I can only suggest that we guide our own one by one.

I love animals each and every one, I understand them. Humans on the other hand, I have very few
if any that I would call friend.

You communicate beautifully and I thank you for your contribution to my education (we learn until the day we stop breathing),
Response from Collie made on 13th Aug 2018 12:30:34
After reading your two contributions I have come to the conclusion that,

a) . Greed and one-upmanship!

b) . Lack of God / a belief system in young lives. No code of ethics.

c) . The internet has had a mainly negative effect on their lives which far outweighs the positive.

d) . Children are encouraged to aim for the highest possible achievement in education, not all are
suitable for accademia. Do one's best and be proud.

Finally Lionel, no matter what we say or do, our children will go forward as we did and, do their
very best and that is all they can do. We have a daughter, a beautiful young lady full of spirit and an inclination to help change the world for the better, we are very proud of her hope that she will leave footprints worth following.

Collie (pet name for Colette)
Response from Collie made on 6th May 2020 03:39:39
Lionel I have been away from Silversurfers for sometime. Having reread these postings I would dearly love to know what your is your opinion now year 2020 May 6th. You make such good sense, please let us know.

Thanks in advance of your reply Lionel.

Collie
frelia
8th Jan 2016 06:53:17 (Last activity: 21st Mar 2020 14:53:34)
2
Thanks for voting!
I agree wholeheartedly but the only difference with the tables is just that the children will now be tested on them before leaving junior school ,so it's just an extra test for the children. When I was at junior school ( 60 years ago) we were tested every week on tables and spelling so they very soon went in.
Response from PerfectNumber made on 21st Mar 2020 14:53:34
I am all in favour of children learning times tables. Before retirement I taught children labelled 'Gifted & Talented' - I don't like that as a label; as far as I'm concerned, they were 'Mrs P's groups. I used to lament out loud that I couldn't tie their hands behind their backs to stop them using their fingers for arithmetical operations. I also pointed out that, the slicker they were with number bonds & multiplication, the more of their brain they had left over for actually thinking about the problem/conundrum as a whole.

I'm not sure if I'm misunderstanding Kim8, but i have encountered 2 ways of learning times tables - there was a fashion that still makes me shudder where the teacher would move their hands along a ruler and the children would chant 7, 14, 21 etc - that seemed a perfect way of ensuring they could never calculate 6x7 without using their fingers. If you learn '1 7 is 7, 2 7's are 14 etc', 6 7's are 42 should just pop out in an instant.

Learning tables to the 12's though, apart from the threat mentioned above of yet another test, is just weird. We learned them because there were 12 pennies in a shilling. 11 and 12 times tables actually aren't too hard (7's and 8's still hold that pole position), so it was never worth grumbling about. What I did really dislike abut that era was the emphasis on the L6 at KS2 - which was basically the brighter kids at the top of Junior Schools spending a year learning secondary school English & Maths - I won't point fingers, but most people with an interest will know whose watch this happened under.

It was part of my decision to retire - my off-syllabus lessons had to be replaced by L6 lessons, so our brightest kids left knowing how to use a semi-colon and multiply 27 by 13 without a calculator (and I will point a finger here, as it was parents who were so anti-calculator) but not who Socrates was, or how to create fractals or Mobius bands, or how Ancient Civilisations did their maths, or etc etc.

I will say now, the maths syllabus, under a different watch, is being turned round - with children still having to do their basic arithmetic but also to combine that knowledge with logic and lateral thinking to solve problems and puzzles.

Oh, I feel better for having said all that!!
Eddie88
13th Mar 2020 15:30:22
0
Thanks for voting!
A basic understanding of mathematics (starting with the times table) and language are the building blocks for constructing the rest of your life. I'm not talking advanced calculus or the ability to write a Shakespeare sonnet, I do mean a basic grasp of the structure of both subjects. Anyone without that knowledge will struggle with lack of confidence and self worth. It's also a fallacy to believe that you will, on every occasion you need them, have at hand the electronic substitute for your own mind. Technology is essential and has led to most of the great scientific advances we all benefit from - but it is a tool and not a replacement for our own intelligence.
I've had children and my biggest concern when they were at school was the quality of teachers at both primary and secondary level. Far too often my wife and I felt that some teachers showed no particular affection for, or mastery of, their subjects and, more disturbingly we think, no particular enthusiasm for or excitement about life itself. The best teachers are inspirational and enthusiastic and this translates to a desire to discover and learn in their pupils. It's not just about one subject it's about an approach to life.
The education system seems dominated by people who profess to be intelligent and expert but are too easily caught out as not being particularly either of these. The system for training them is in a rut because it's designed and operated by people of a similar ilk. It's difficult to see a way forward whilst we don't concede there is a problem.
Education starts with understanding the joy and opportunity of life.
Fruitcake13
9th Sep 2017 19:28:50
2
Thanks for voting!
Times tables were one of the most useful things I ever learned at primary school.
wiffler
16th Mar 2016 09:06:04
1
Thanks for voting!
It starts at home. I was lucky. My Aunty brought me excercise books every week. She sat down with me to help. My dad read the newspaper to me, did not understand but he would point out small words that I began to recognise. Saying all this, my great nephew aged 5, plays on I,pad and he is picking up words and numbers as he plays. It's attitude. Respect. Children should be taught to respect their elders. Everything else follows.
kim8
4th Mar 2016 23:15:19
0
Thanks for voting!
As a teacher with 32 years experience, I get so cross when I hear this rubbish about "modern methods." Times tables have always been taught by rote in every school I have ever worked in but you also have to teach children to apply them in the real world otherwise all you test is their memory.
(The number of children who, when asked 6x7, have to go back to the start and recite from 1x7 because they ONLY know them by rote from the start and can't just pull the significant numbers out!)
Also, you forget, when we were children we knew how to sit still and concentrate for longer than a second without "This is boring, I can't do this!" Also, we had to learn our 11 and 12x tables because of old money. We've been decimal since the seventies!
bobby47
3rd Mar 2016 20:14:30
0
Thanks for voting!
i think it great that tables are going to be taught the old way ..it works,i can still see us now sitting cross legged on the floor repeating and repeating but it sinks in...i still struggle with 11 x 11 though lol
Debi
9th Jan 2016 14:55:06
0
Thanks for voting!
It seems to me that education is going back towards the way we were taught. I still remember my tables to this day. And have been very useful in day to day living.
Beany
8th Jan 2016 12:47:11
0
Thanks for voting!
My sons teacher was appalled 40 years ago when I pointed out the frieze of tables round the classroom walls was useless asking if I wanted them taught ' parrot fashion' I said yes I was taught that way and I know them to this day.If my son wants to buy six items at a certain price he has no idea of the total because he doesn't have the frieze of tables in the shop.I would be surprised today if my son could recite his tables as I can but I am very proud to say he is a professor of economics.

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