Mental Arithmetic

[RobNorth]

Do kids still have "Mental Arithmetic" lessons at school?

[Zacs-Master]

Nope. Why should they?

[New Judge]

Because when somebody quotes them a price without VAT and they need to add it on, they won't have to ponce about with a phone.

[Zacs-Master]

'Ponce about'. You mean get it out and press 5 buttons?

[vulcan42]

I think it disappeared for a few years but is now coming back.
http://www.harlesdenschool.com/the-hps-curriculum/mathematics/mental-maths-1

[Tilly2]

I can't remember. It was a while ago.

[Buenchico]

I did a great deal of mental arithmetic work with the kids I taught a quarter of a century ago, well before it became part of the National Curriculum (as it currently is).

[wolf63]

I still use my fingers when I am counting. I spent most of my working life playing with the government's money. A calculated is essential to, at least, check my calculations.

I left school in 1980

[jourdain2]

I will ask nest Tuesday when I am in school for my reading tuition. I can't think that mental arithmetic is much taught. Today I went into a Brantano store which is closing and advertised 10% off all stock. There were labels on the end of each isle explaining the actual labelling of prices!

[chrissa1]

Doesn't everyone need mental arithmetic all the time?? I taught it in the 70s. What about times tables? Are they still taught?

[jourdain2]

chrissa1 Of course we do. Grandson is struggling with tables (he's a bright boy) because they intersperse 3x5 with 15 divided by 3 - he's nearly 7 and has most of the harder tables to go. By 7+ I was fighting hard to get a star on my last times Table, the dreaded 7 x (to me). I had them all safely under my belt by the time I was 8 - this was in a County Primary School in the late 50's. There is not, however, enough rigor these days i.m.o.. Everyone coped in my day.

[fiction-factory]

For primary schools it must vary from school to school since we see stories on here from parents whose children are having to learn them. But many mustn't be doing it well because so many arrive at primary school unable to work out even simple ones like 4x6 or, even worse, 6 x 10. And even if they know 6 x 5 =30 too many would have no idea what you mean when you ask 'so what's 30 divided by 6. Hopefully jourdain's child will benefit from having to know the reverse times tables.
Secondary school is more difficult. 8 year olds may be happy and compliant when chanting times tables but getting 12 year olds to do it is a different matter.
Mental arithmetic is also not as good as it should be. Pupils too often just don't have mental strategies to do simple calculations such as 40 - 19.
I would like there to be some sort of mental arithmetic test students have to pass at certain stages but I know some teachers disagree. The problem is that the GCSE covers just far too many things and the GCSE results- getting a grade C (4/5 now) is so important. So even the students who can't do 6 + 7 by age 16 without a calculator have to be taught how to calculate the volume of a triangular prism, manipulate surds or simplify (y+4)(y-6).
I think we need to accept that students are not suited to GCSE Maths and we should have some sort of mental arithemetic qualification, and lessons should focus on that.
Of course some students are just not interested in learning and don't see the point, so you can't force them to improve.
I think parents have a part to play in this too. I leant my mental arithmetic playing counting games or by just being quizzed. My children did the same. I knew my tables before I was six. It's not hard- if children can learn a language (English etc) at home by the age of 5 learning some times tables and number bonds shouldn't be a problem.

[fiction-factory]

Of course lack of numeracy skills isn't just a present day problem. We quite often see posts from adults on here asking how to find 20% of something or how to convert between units of measure.

[murraymints]

we had to recite tables up to x13 and teacher would randomly point and ask one of us for a solution throughout the day...kept us on our toes at 9 !

[ummmm]

FF - my son started primary school not long after his 4th birthday. Do you really expect kids to know maths at that age?

[fiction-factory]

I can't answer that ummm as I am not sure what you mean by 'know maths'. I think that being able to count in ones , twos, fives and tens plus being able to add or subtract small numbers would be a good starting point

[ummmm]

Okay - not the times tables then.

My son was actually pretty good at working things out when it came to buying sweets :-)

[murraymints]

I could read/write/do addition, subtraction , division and multiplication before starting school...it was quite normal then to be taught at home before school...

[ummmm]

I couldn't but it wasn't because of my mothers lack of trying. My sister could though.

[fiction-factory]

By the age a child starts school they can speak a language fairly fluently (my English at 4 was I'm sure much better than my French was at age 16), use a mobile and computer to play games, can name the characters from Frozen or some TV programme, can dress themselves, can use strategies for getting what they want, etc- so I don't think learning at least some times tables and number bonds by the same age should be a problem (although it should be done in a fun way).

[waterboatman]

All four of us could read, write, understand mathematics and do simple mental arithmetic before we started school. Our mum made sue of that.