The 12 Times Table...

[sandyRoe]

I always had trouble with 12x elevens. I'd say to myself 12x tens are 120 and one more 12 is 132.
Why are they being reintroduced into schools?

[douglas9401]

Dozen make sense. :P

[factor-fiction]

They should be in my opinion. Far too much time is wasted in Maths lessons with secondary students who can't work out 6 x 3 never mind 12 x 11.

[sandyRoe]

Maybe if we leave the EU we'll go back to Imperial weights and measures?

[DTCwordfan]

Why not, it's basic numeracy.......I had mine tied down well before 9 years old, so did my kids, the youngest one at a ridiculously young age - she self-taught herself from listening to elder sister and got the logic on pat, "seven groups of five, Dad"....

[factor-fiction]

I agree that knowing up to 10 x 10 is a really good start and that there is no particular significance nowadays to the 12 times table. Once a student knows up to 10x10 they should they develop strategies for working out things like 14 x 6 or 11 x 18 mentally

[sandyRoe]

Maybe my question should have been, why was it thought OK to stop children having to learn 'times tables'?

[factor-fiction]

Learning tables was not officially stopped. By the time they leave primary children are currently supposed to know up to 10 x 10 but far too many don't know even simpler ones such as 5 x 7 or recognise that 9 x 2 can't be 17 so it hasn't worked. What had changed compared to 40 years ago is that rote learning- chanting of tables- stopped and there is an attitude of 'go on, use a calculator'

[gingejbee]

sandy: go back to Imperial measurements? But they're a lot more complicated!

[sandyRoe]

The good old days of furlongs, perches, poles, and rods, weren't that complicated, were they? I can visualise a lb weight easier than 425 grammes.

[jno]

I know - try to tell the youngsters of today that you've heard a joke about a half-acre but you can't tell them because it's too rood, and they'll just look blankly.

[Sharingan]

I think one of the first thing I was taught was tables ( up to 12) and I had an abacus to do prioper maths on when I was very little as well. I can actually do quite complicated things in my head by weirdly envisioning my abacus.lol.
I didn't realise that children at school didn't learn tables, and therefore worst still can't play FizzBuzz :(

[Sharingan]

My English is a bit rubbish today though *proper* and*worse*, sorry.

[B00]

Children haven't stopped learning their times tables, mine's 8 and bring home maths homework which includes times, percentages, and divisions amongst the usual plus and minuses.

[rockyracoon]

They do learn tables but not in the traditional sense that we did, they just seem to combine it with maths whereas we learnt it by rote every morning (without fail) with the teacher slapping the desk with his ruler for momentum. All the kids in the class knew the tables up to 12.

[sunny-dave]

I think it's a gross injustice ...

[AlwaysConfused]

We used to do a couple per day at school. I always had violin lessons on a Thursday morning - the day of 7 and 8 times tables. Unsurprisingly, I am rubbish at my 7's and 8's.

Crates of beer come in 24's. I'm good at those. 24 times table should be compulsory!

[Peter Pedant]

My mother in India in 1920s had to learn up to 20

we all thought eek ! actually it wasnt a 20 x 20 matrix

but twelve times tables up to twenty.

Chanting in two lots on alternative days

so I always thought we got off light

[Old_Geezer]

Why were they ever not continued in schools ? Your own example shows you didn't memorise the basic foundation of maths well yourself, to leave it out altogether is so negligent, and crippling the ability of the kids one is expecting to be educated.

As for 11 * 12 then one can always work out 10 * 12 and add another 12. Aids like that, help.

[Old_Geezer]

Learning by rote is vital. It is what forms the basic foundation for doing mathematical stuff in your head. You need to know the answers to that basic level without having to think about it, you let the subconscious provide the result. If they aren't doing that then they are still incompetent educators.

[Peter Pedant]

O god doesnt anyone recollect the trachtenberg speed system for maths and the rule for eleven ?

you add the preceding digit

12 - first digit 1 and there a 0 in front of that ..... 1
move on to the next , 2 , add the preceding ...... 3
move to the next 0 add the preceding 2 2

cant remember the rule for carry but there was on