Kids here, leave 'Primary' School, (Year 7), with no such enforced preparation.
Say one asks someone what is "36 x 46"....
TELL ME I'm missing something![]()
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Meanwhile in China.
When I did grade school, we did first order equations with one unknown at grade 6, and quadratic at grade 7, then trigonometry at grade 9 and advanced trigonometry at grade 11, followed by entry level calculus at grade 12.
When I did grade school, we did first order equations with one unknown at age 12, and quadratic at age 12/13, then trigonometry at age 15 and advanced trigonometry at age 15/16, followed by entry level calculus at age 18.
That looks right to me. Maybe nowadays the kids just spend too much time on social justice and political correctness.
In what we call(ed) primary school here in the UK (ages 5-7)
That looks right to me. Maybe nowadays the kids just spend too much time on social justice and political correctness.
Says the man who comes from a country where mandatory school classes include 'social studies', 'ideology and morality' and 'labor studies'.
I'm not one for wrote memorization, something that's never been particularly valuable to anyone, anyway.
In what we call(ed) primary school here in the UK (ages 5-7)
The age range of primary school would depend on which county you live in. Where I grew up we had Primary school up to age 10, and Secondary school from age 11 onward. (Primary school was in two stages, Infant school and Junior school.)
Primary/Secondary is I think the most common system, but I believe some counties have or had Primary/Middle/Secondary school systems with different age ranges for each.
I'm not one for wrote memorization, something that's never been particularly valuable to anyone, anyway.
I think that's the wrong way of looking at it. Many powerful computational algorithms contain lookup tables somewhere at their core. And that is to be expected: for some things it is faster to retrieve the result from memory than it is to compute it from scratch.
Thus it is with times tables.
If we look at the mind/brain as having an analytical and executive function, then the more basic facts it contains in its database for instant recall, the more powerful and capable will be at solving problems and making decisions.
I'm not one for wrote memorization, something that's never been particularly valuable to anyone, anyway.
The difference is, as I understand it, kids are nowadays taught to count in twos, count in threes and so on. It's the same data as the times tables but it's organized in a different fashion, a fashion that's better suited to the associative and sequential nature of human memory. For the rote learners: how many times did you have to mentally chant "five sevens are ..." to trigger the associated memory when you were calculating something?
But at the end of the day, I want that instant recall for myself. I don't want to mentally have to go 7, 14, 21, 28, 35 when I need to know what five sevens are.
I'm not one for wrote memorization, something that's never been particularly valuable to anyone, anyway.
How did you know what those words mean? And how to write them?
I'm not one for wrote memorization, something that's never been particularly valuable to anyone, anyway.
I think that's the wrong way of looking at it. Many powerful computational algorithms contain lookup tables somewhere at their core. And that is to be expected: for some things it is faster to retrieve the result from memory than it is to compute it from scratch.
Thus it is with times tables.
If we look at the mind/brain as having an analytical and executive function, then the more basic facts it contains in its database for instant recall, the more powerful and capable will be at solving problems and making decisions.
The difference is, as I understand it, kids are nowadays taught to count in twos, count in threes and so on. It's the same data as the times tables but it's organized in a different fashion, a fashion that's better suited to the associative and sequential nature of human memory. For the rote learners: how many times did you have to mentally chant "five sevens are ..." to trigger the associated memory when you were calculating something?
"When I was in school" we were required to learn the multiplication tables to 10x10 by 3rd grade (roughly 8 years old). I had a hell of a time with it. But I come from a family of teachers and there's no way that was going to be allowed to slide. So I memorized them and yeah, remember them all to this day.