Oh, Bravo! You are absolutely right. I have often said that obsessing on giving kids classes in computers is an utter waste of time, akin to us having taken a class called, "How to turn on the TV." After all, my 6-year-old knows more about computers than I did when I was 25.
Meanwhile, I have to teach my third grader multiplication tables myself, because they just don't do it right anymore. They no longer make the kids write 'em out 10 times each or anything, but they DO let them have calculators! (Not mine, though...he does it by hand until he's in Chem or PreCalc and no sooner).
Regards,
A little reward system works wonders. When each of our 4 boys reached 4th grade, we gave them $20 if they could prove to us that they had memorized the multiplication tables up to 12X12 and $40 if they did 20X20. Not even the Catholic school we had them in did over 10X10 and the public school our 2 oldest went to before we abandoned the publics called it "drill and kill" and refused to make the kids do any mental arithmetic.