Times table to be learnt at Primary School

11 plus is still done - my boy has just passed his!

I can recite the 1 tmes table, in my head and out loud, now I am a Clever Dick

Admiral

When I was in junior school we learnt the tables every morning the whole class had to recite them together , you had as Adimral said clever dicks like him and myself who could actually do it, then you had those whose just hummed along to the tune I'm sure you can all remember , 

ones one is one        1x1    Two twos are four  2x2=4 

The reciting bit seemed ok till the teacher threw them back at you...8x7....11x12....I can still feel the fear!

How come everyone who once went to school thinks  that that makes them an expert on Education Policy?After 38 years of classroom teaching  what I have learned is that everyone has a   rectum and opinions

How come everyone who once went to school thinks  that that makes them an expert on Education Policy?After 38 years of classroom teaching  what I have learned is that everyone has a   rectum and opinions

Agreed ken, from someone with similar length of service. But, in fairness, I do think most posters are supportive of the hard work which goes on in the vast majority of schools ( as, indeed does Nicky Morgan.) Very few cling to the belief that occasionally picking up youngsters at the school gates makes them an expert! 

How come everyone who once went to school thinks  that that makes them an expert on Education Policy?After 38 years of classroom teaching  what I have learned is that everyone has a   rectum and opinions

I have nothing but admiration for teachers.There can be few jobs that must give as much satisfaction and reward as helping children on the road of life.

peter.

Teachers rock. They are kind, hard working and creative. Especially when finding myriad ways to help modern children learn their multiplication and division facts (times tables) by rote and with understanding enabling application.  Tables have never been out of fashion, but some little lovelies have a harder time recalling things than others.

I have also wondered why 11 & 12 times tables still exist in this metric age. Has anyone's lives been transformed by knowing the 12 times tables. We can all learn something parrot fashion but do we understand? Its a bit like leaning a poem off by heart but not understanding the content or the feeling it portrays. Children should enjoy and understand numbers that is unlikely to happen by learning the 12 times table.

David 

Provided there is an understanding of what multiplication is, there's nothing more to understand in learning tables.

The analogy with a poem is not valid; learning the tables by rote allows one to carry out mental arithmetic quickly and accurately. I agree that there is a great deal of learning which should not be taught by rote but the times tables is not one of them. Indeed there's really no other way with tables. The only way to know them is to learn them by rote.

Nor is there any logic whatsoever to the notion that we should only go up to ten times because we are in a decimal age. If that were true then why bother with 6 times or 9 times or 8 times. The question I would ask is why stop at 12. In my view it is very useful to know them up to at least 15 times.

Of course there are calculators nowadays and I recognise that, but having some number dexterity is very useful and tables are a vital part of that - at least up to 12 times.   

The reciting bit seemed ok till the teacher threw them back at you...8x7....11x12....I can still feel the fear!

But boy did we know them.