On 14/02/2018 11:29, Dan S. MacAbre wrote:
johnny-knowall wrote:
On 14 Feb 2018, p-0''0-h the cat (coder) wrote
(in ):


Another triumph for conservatism. I wonder who's behind this brainwave.

Someone who has never heard of computers or calculators, so probably
Ye Olde
Rees Mogg.


I used to think there was an assumption that kids are better off
learning to use calculators these days, but our lad regularly has times
tables excercises in his homework (and we certainly didn't have homework
from the age of 5 when I was a lad), to be tested the week after.
Trouble is, by the time he's got to 12 (again), he's forgotten the 7. To
my mind, a national test most likely has the purpose of identifying
schools that make little effort to teach tables, when compared to the
average; IOW, that they are sticking to the curriculum.Â* Schools will
already know, I think, which children have parents that are not equipped
or motivated to do those elements of teaching that are expected to be
done at home.Â* Childhood isn't what it used to be.

You can't make proper informed use of a calculator unless you have an
idea of roughly what the outcome should be anyway.

For instance, if you press a button twice or omit a character, your
answer will be out by a factor of 10. If you can't recognise that when
you see it, you may decide that the incorrect result is, in fact, correct.