Oh I agree. My point wasn’t to say that rote memory is useless. I simply wanted to point out that it’s bad at teaching concepts. By teaching the concepts first, students are better prepared for later (more complicated) math courses. Anyone can memorize that 8x8 is 64, but understanding how to arrive at that answer is just as important.

[–] TempermentalAnomaly@lemmy.world 1 points 19 hours ago

I'm all for the multiple paths to solutions, but they aren't even doing times tables these days. We drill it a little at home, but he struggled with just getting it memorized. I don't know why they don't drill a little. Honestly, they seem to have the kids sitting on the computer doing adaptive math most of the time.

[–] pyre@lemmy.world 1 points 23 hours ago

yeah obviously, but i thought they were supposed to teach the times table after multiplication in general anyway