Reply #7: As someone who has tutored several students over last few years, I m concerned

[truedelphi]

On the one hand, kids from an affluent loving families are not learning their times tables. Without their calculators, they cannot compute a thing.

And then, on the other hand, once the kid arrives in 7th grade, the material is so far ahead of them due to overly ambitious school boards that even I am stuck. Not only have I been stuck - I had to call a friend who for years taught statistics at a university to help me. And she was stumped by some of ht material.

So it seems that a cohesive intelligent protocol for instructing kids in math has not yet been uncovered. In my humble opinion, learning the math tables helps your brain wire itself and serves to develop your thinking processes. And pretending that kids who only know how to use calculators will suddenly know how to jump from sixth grade to college level statistic course work is overly ambitious.