Times tables & education today
Watch this postIt 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 ??
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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.
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.
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),
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)
Thanks in advance of your reply Lionel.
Collie
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!!
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.
(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!