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I’ve never known my times tables. Frankly, who needs them? I’ve never known my times tables. Frankly, who needs them?
(4 days later)
The ministerial diktat to make children learn multiplication by rote is silly. Surely there are more important things
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Fri 16 Feb 2018 17.41 GMT
Last modified on Fri 16 Feb 2018 22.00 GMT
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What’s nine sevens? Quick, quick! Nine sevens. Now, some people can answer that straight away, with a querulous little singsong intonation in their voice, as if to say: “Sixty-three, of course, how dare you insinuate that my basic education is somehow lacking?” And then they will often – in a jokey but deadly serious way – challenge you to one in return. Twelve sixes! Come on, times-table tough guy, let’s go! Right now, you and me. Come and have a go if you think you’re times-table-y enough!What’s nine sevens? Quick, quick! Nine sevens. Now, some people can answer that straight away, with a querulous little singsong intonation in their voice, as if to say: “Sixty-three, of course, how dare you insinuate that my basic education is somehow lacking?” And then they will often – in a jokey but deadly serious way – challenge you to one in return. Twelve sixes! Come on, times-table tough guy, let’s go! Right now, you and me. Come and have a go if you think you’re times-table-y enough!
Twelve sixes! It’s a live issue now, after the education secretary, Damian Hinds, announced that mandatory times tables tests are back on the agenda for primary school kids for the first time in 75 years. This after the school standards minister, Nick Gibb, refused in a television interview this week to answer a simple times-tables question.Twelve sixes! It’s a live issue now, after the education secretary, Damian Hinds, announced that mandatory times tables tests are back on the agenda for primary school kids for the first time in 75 years. This after the school standards minister, Nick Gibb, refused in a television interview this week to answer a simple times-tables question.
My own technique for solving the nine-sevens problem has remained the same since I was in primary school and, stricken with horror, sitting there at my little desk, I absorbed the fact that I was supposed to learn the answers to these 144 questions off by heart; and if I got them wrong, I would be in big trouble. I did. And I was. A very choleric teacher with a red face was always cross.My own technique for solving the nine-sevens problem has remained the same since I was in primary school and, stricken with horror, sitting there at my little desk, I absorbed the fact that I was supposed to learn the answers to these 144 questions off by heart; and if I got them wrong, I would be in big trouble. I did. And I was. A very choleric teacher with a red face was always cross.
My approach, then as now, is to take 7, double it to make 14, double that to make 28, and again to make 56 and then add 7 to make 63. Or you can Google it. Well, how absurdly laborious, you might say. How much quicker, in the long run, to just jolly well swallow your pride and knuckle down and learn it. Of course. But – and here my voice drops to a whisper – why do I need to know times tables in the first place? I have never, ever, been able to do my times tables. I tried, and ignominiously failed. And it has never done me any harm.My approach, then as now, is to take 7, double it to make 14, double that to make 28, and again to make 56 and then add 7 to make 63. Or you can Google it. Well, how absurdly laborious, you might say. How much quicker, in the long run, to just jolly well swallow your pride and knuckle down and learn it. Of course. But – and here my voice drops to a whisper – why do I need to know times tables in the first place? I have never, ever, been able to do my times tables. I tried, and ignominiously failed. And it has never done me any harm.
I rarely summon up the courage to come out of the closet as an anti-times-tableistI rarely summon up the courage to come out of the closet as an anti-times-tableist
Now wait. I don’t regard myself as innumerate, and I don’t approve of smug arts graduates who parade their anti-science philistinism, as if they expect to be congratulated on their ignorance. I am, as it happens, married to a scientist. And for what it’s worth, I got O-levels in maths and additional maths, both at a respectable-ish grade B. But I have never quite got my head around my times tables, which I think are a Gradgrindian chanting fetish periodically revived by politicians who, if they are honest with themselves, have never really needed times tables either. But I rarely summon up the courage to come out of the closet as an anti-times-tableist.Now wait. I don’t regard myself as innumerate, and I don’t approve of smug arts graduates who parade their anti-science philistinism, as if they expect to be congratulated on their ignorance. I am, as it happens, married to a scientist. And for what it’s worth, I got O-levels in maths and additional maths, both at a respectable-ish grade B. But I have never quite got my head around my times tables, which I think are a Gradgrindian chanting fetish periodically revived by politicians who, if they are honest with themselves, have never really needed times tables either. But I rarely summon up the courage to come out of the closet as an anti-times-tableist.
Writing this article, I had a fascinating conversation with a colleague who was politely appalled at my ignorance and blustering insistence that I didn’t need times tables. “Didn’t you ever work in a shop?” he asked. Why, yes, I had summer jobs in shops, although they were department stores like Selfridges, where payment was conducted mostly with credit cards. “But how about working out change?”Writing this article, I had a fascinating conversation with a colleague who was politely appalled at my ignorance and blustering insistence that I didn’t need times tables. “Didn’t you ever work in a shop?” he asked. Why, yes, I had summer jobs in shops, although they were department stores like Selfridges, where payment was conducted mostly with credit cards. “But how about working out change?”
Well, I can do that. Something costs 67p and the customer gives you £1. The change is 33p. I can do it quick as a flash. And times tables are of absolutely zero use in working it out. What counts is knowing which pairs of numbers add up to make 10. For the customer too, calculating your correct change is also useful. I remember once timidly asking a teacher if, perhaps, we wouldn’t be better off learning that very simple series of pairings and he looked at me as if I’d suggested replacing maths lessons with compulsory dope-smoking and playing the electric guitar.Well, I can do that. Something costs 67p and the customer gives you £1. The change is 33p. I can do it quick as a flash. And times tables are of absolutely zero use in working it out. What counts is knowing which pairs of numbers add up to make 10. For the customer too, calculating your correct change is also useful. I remember once timidly asking a teacher if, perhaps, we wouldn’t be better off learning that very simple series of pairings and he looked at me as if I’d suggested replacing maths lessons with compulsory dope-smoking and playing the electric guitar.
As for Damian Hinds, he was apparently a strategy consultant, and probably did his fair share of times-table learning – though I suspect what speeded him in his political career was an ability to speak in public and absorb a written brief. OK, his immediate predecessor at education, Justine Greening, was an accountant; but the one before that, Nicky Morgan, was a lawyer. Michael Gove read English. Ed Balls was a PPE guy. Smart, quick-witted types, all of them, who – sure – probably found that their times tables helped with their mental gymnastics and all-around alertness. But how about making kids learn capital cities? (Bolivia? La Paz! Ivory Coast? Yamoussoukro!) Or making them draw international maps from memory? Or testing them on which countries border other countries in clockwise order? (Can you do Germany without looking at the map? I couldn’t.)As for Damian Hinds, he was apparently a strategy consultant, and probably did his fair share of times-table learning – though I suspect what speeded him in his political career was an ability to speak in public and absorb a written brief. OK, his immediate predecessor at education, Justine Greening, was an accountant; but the one before that, Nicky Morgan, was a lawyer. Michael Gove read English. Ed Balls was a PPE guy. Smart, quick-witted types, all of them, who – sure – probably found that their times tables helped with their mental gymnastics and all-around alertness. But how about making kids learn capital cities? (Bolivia? La Paz! Ivory Coast? Yamoussoukro!) Or making them draw international maps from memory? Or testing them on which countries border other countries in clockwise order? (Can you do Germany without looking at the map? I couldn’t.)
Is all that silly? Maybe. But no more silly than chanting your times tables, and it tones up your mind and general knowledge. Times tables aren’t the be-all and end-all, unless you want a job with an on-course bookmaker.Is all that silly? Maybe. But no more silly than chanting your times tables, and it tones up your mind and general knowledge. Times tables aren’t the be-all and end-all, unless you want a job with an on-course bookmaker.
• Peter Bradshaw is a Guardian columnist• Peter Bradshaw is a Guardian columnist
EducationEducation
OpinionOpinion
Damian HindsDamian Hinds
MathematicsMathematics
Primary schoolsPrimary schools
TeachingTeaching
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