Educashun...

[dizzyblonde]

Mental arithmetic.

Although a calculator is needed once at senior school, the basis for maths should be done the hard way, so it is ingrained for ever and a day. No good being able to add up and subtract etc when you are stood in a shop buying items, if all you can do is put it into your phone to get an answer for example.

One thing I do like with my sons education is that simple mathematics is quite focused on. I like him doing his homework using his fingers and thumbs, or doing long subtractions or multiplication with the little cogs going between his ears.....not seen it in many a year, and its refreshing.

BTW yesterday he learnt about prisms, and today about vikings, he instantly remembered the scientific subject, but not the history, hes either not overly keen on history, or the lesson wasn't as engaging.

First thing I do with a result on a calculator screen is to do a quick mental estimation to see if I pretty much agree with what's on the screen. The wrong button or missing a button can completely lead you up the garden path.

I don't know how many employers would accept an employee that can't do basic mental arithmetic for a basic office job, and for that reason alone it needs to be taught in schools, and calculators shouldn't be allowed in exams and tests unless there is a need for the functions of a scientific calculator.

Originally Posted by -Ralph-

First thing I do with a result on a calculator screen is to do a quick mental estimation to see if I pretty much agree with what's on the screen. The wrong button or missing a button can completely lead you up the garden path.

Absolutely. And it is not just arithmetic where it is important in life to mentally predict the rough outcome to check that the actual outcome is correct.

[timwilky]

I don't know about calculators. Whilst I was in further and higher education they were essential. But I had been to a carp school and found that my mathematics knowledge was not all it should have been and catch up was urgently needed. What a calculator allows you to do is more in less time. You still need to know base principles.

For instance to find any root, the obvious solution is to take the logarithm of the number and divided it by the root index and then take the inverse log. Simples but in order to know that quick and easy method. You need to know what a log is in the first place.

Again at school they never taught us basic calculus, it was assumed in my further education you already new simple differentiation and integration techniques.

But what really got me in higher education when I had to do materials engineering. School had never taught me basic chemistry. Ionic, covalent bonds etc. you might as well have been talking different language. I had opted to do physics. most of which was a complete waste of time. A little combined sciences course would have done me far more good. And to drop geography for additional maths.

Now to upset people. I personally would have French/German/Spanish taught from age 5. I work for a multinational (French) company. I spend a lot of time in Paris and Baden, it is embarrassing the way the rest of the world speaks English. I have had 6 year old kids in Sumatra say hello to me in English

My 3 year old is forming sentences in French quite nicely

oooh, sorry, had to get that wee boast in there

[timwilky]

Yes, but he has an advantage.

[dizzyblonde]

Originally Posted by timwilky

Now to upset people. I personally would have French/German/Spanish taught from age 5. I work for a multinational (French) company. I spend a lot of time in Paris and Baden, it is embarrassing the way the rest of the world speaks English. I have had 6 year old kids in Sumatra say hello to me in English

+1, in European countries they teach English from this age, so why can't we do it with a popular European language?

Originally Posted by -Ralph-

My 3 year old is forming sentences in French quite nicely

oooh, sorry, had to get that wee boast in there

As Tim says, distinct advantage there Saying that I wouldn't mind if babba here could form Greek sentences by three years, be a bit much if his dads mother tongue wasn't passed on!

[Bibio]

Originally Posted by dirtydog

Hell I still struggle with that! I had times tables etc drummed into me constantly at school but I am rubbish at them and always have been!

days in each month = make a fist with one of your hands and count the knuckles (31 days) and dips between knuckles (30 except feb).

goes like this: start at pinky
first = knuckle = Jan = 31 days
second = dip betwen knuckle = Feb = 28 days
third = knuckle = Mar = 31 days
fourth = dip between knuckle = Apr = 30 days

so on and so on till you run out of your 4 knuckles then start over again at your pinky till you finish at Dec.

conclusion there are 2 consecutive months with 31 days. July and August.

[Messie]

I'm sorry I didn't mean to offend.
Of course basic arithmetical skills are important. I didn't claim otherwise. As I said, knowing what addition/subtraction/percentages mean is essential, even if a mchine does the calculations for you. Abacusses have been around a lot longer than calculators!
Ralph - I really didn't mean to rile you. I thought I was standing up for teachers, who, by and large, try their very damndest to do a good job, as your wife will testify. But maybe chain tightening is as day to day relevant as converting MPH to KPH on the continent?

To try to clarify - I get bothered by two things
1. people making sweeping and often stereoyped generalisations, based on one or two examples, and concluding that all today's kids are thick, uneducated and poorly taught. This does no favours to todays geneation nor to our teachers.
2. I wouldn't dream of telling a mechanic how to fix or service my bike or car, a builder how to plaster my walls or a lawyer to conveyance my house sale. But it seems that, if you have children, you automatically become an expert on how to educate kids. That makes no more sense to me than just because I can ride a bike I automatically know how to fix/service a bike.

I do genuinely believe that parents have a huge contibution to make to their and our children's education. I wish many more would get involved - not just in homework, but in the school community, becoming a parent reader, Governor or general helper

Again, peace and love

Originally Posted by Messie

You do NOT need to be ably to do mental arithmetic today.done

Originally Posted by -Ralph-

I don't know how many employers would accept an employee that can't do basic mental arithmetic for a basic office job

I work part time in a shop that doesn't even have an electronic cash register, needless to say my mental arithmetic isn't bad

I think one of the main problems these days is children relying on electronic gadgets to get stuff done for them, a calculator, a spellchecker on the computer, typing out stuff instead of improving your handwriting. How many adults still have very poor handwriting or can't spell? Just because they can get away with not learning/practicing! Laziness, sums up a lot of the human race really