JNugent wrote:
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. 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. 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.

I remember at uni-level maths, one of the first things discussed was how
to quickly estimate (if only to the nearest order of magnitude) what a
solution might look like. It seemed obvious to me at the time, but I am
still surprised at how often even educated people fail to spot what
ought to be glaring errors.