I’m old. I added the right-hand column, got 13, mentally *wrote* down 3 then carried the one to the left hand column, added the left hand column and got 4, resulting in the answer of 43 in about a half second.
Yesterday we had a meeting with a forester. He is about 40 and has, obviously, a college degree. The arithmetical problem concerned $8.00 per acre and 40 acres. He struggled. I said “8x4 is 32”. He looked at me, impressed, and said :”I can’t do math in my head.” I said, “It wasn’t *math*, it was the times tables. You are too young to have memorized them.” He looked at me blankly. He did not know there were times tables that people used to memorize. I, BTW, am NOT good at math.
OMG, are you saying that kids today in school are not being taught the times tables?
My kids didn’t even have to learn addition tables in grade school. In fact, it is against the law. (Yes - the teachers are not allowed to teach math facts.)
HOWEVER, they and the principal did turn a blind eye as my wife and another gal would go in every day and teach two classes their “math facts” out in the hallway for many years (four??). Adding. Then subtraction. Then multiply, and then dividing.
I’m not sure if other parents took over after my kids had left grade school.
Even with the goofy common-core math you would be hard-pressed to do it without the basic math facts.