June 11th, 2012 10:58

Tables make a comeback

Hold the front page, children are to be introduced to times-tables in their first two years of school. So here we are 12 years into the 21st century and schools are to adopt teaching policies that were common practice over 60 years ago. Now how did the educational authorities come up with that idea, is it possible that after producing generation after generation of innumerate adults they realised they have been following insane policies for far too long, or is it that they have just reached desperation point and will try, or say anything? I wish it were the first but I suspect its the second. 30 years ago when my two eldest offspring were starting at primary school I attended a presentation given by a new-style educationalist.  She explained to us how they were “throwing out the old and embracing the new in matters of teaching English and Maths.” This was based on “proven concepts.”  She then set us an arithmetical problem and a friend of mine, who happened to be a deputy-headmaster at another school, put his hand up immediately and provided the correct answer. She then proceeded  to explain to him how he had arrived at the answer by a process of elimination.  He said : “No, I did it so quickly because I know my times-tables.” She told him though he didn’t know it, he had unwittingly used her “new method” and the importance of tables was being relegated in the curriculum because it was just “teaching by rote.”

A huge angry debate followed where all the numerate parents insisted that tables should still be used. Despite this they were largely abandoned and it was left to the parents to teach them to the children themselves. Now, I discover that my 11-year old grand-daughter, a bright child at the top of her class, in what is supposed to be a very good school –its certainly in a very good area–is terrified of arithmetic and has been taught  only the first few tables. I will be happy if the “concept,” of teaching school-entry children their times-tables is genuinely adopted throughout the school system, but I cannot help but wonder how many current teachers at that level are equipped to teach them, or if the teachers fall down yet again, how many of the current crop of parents can fill the void.. The lack of a basic understanding of numbers in this world of calculators and computers has led to a drastic drop-off rate in science and maths students throughout the last 20 years,  except within the Asian community, where most of the parents learned their basic skills in their home countries. Being able to add up, take away, multiply and divide is so basic to life that the reintroduction of tables is vital,  I am far from convinced however, that they will be taught with any real enthusiasm or that the pupils interest will be fully engaged..

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