[BobL]

Meaningless. Any dog can use ROTE MEMORIZATION for simple math facts.

...come to think of it, why is it our “Education Experts” all agree that kids cannot do the same?

(hint, I know the answer...but I’ll let others try first)

[Night Hides Not]

That's how we learned the multiplication tables when I was in elementary school, nearly 60 years ago. In 4th grade, we were assigned 20 new words a week, writing them five times with a test on Friday.

By the end of the school year, we had a working vocabulary of 600+ words that we never forgot how to spell. That was in the CA public school system. Most of my sixth grade class tested at 12th grade reading level, too.

LOL, we were at Fort Sumter on vacation four years ago. During the presentation of the cannon batteries, the ranger said, "there were 17 batteries manned by five man squads. How many soldiers were needed for that?" I answered "85" immediately. A kid next to me asked, "how did you do that?"