That sound you hear was my jaw hitting the floor and bouncing

[fpb]

A British TV news program has just reported - and reported is as a disciplinary, tightening-of-the-screws type proposal - that the British Government wants every child to be familiar with the times table by the time they are nine.

I don't think I come from an educational golden age. But in my childhood any child who had not memorized the times table by the time they were seven - the second year of school - would have been regarded as a culpable dunce and either made to repeat the year or sent to a special needs school.

EDITED IN: It seems from the responses to this entry that both British and American kids are expected to start learning the Table by their eighth year. OK, I didn't know that. I know I had it by my seventh, for a very simple reason - my family moved around a lot, and in my third year I changed school. And I remember very well knowing the Table by then. I was impressed by the beauty with which all the strings of numbers fitted in, an early lesson in the underlying logic of existence.

Comments

[sevenorora.livejournal.com]

I remember the timetables being introduced at the end of my second year (which I think is second grade in the British/American education system) And I mean, really briefly introduced (as in it wasn’t a reason not to go to the 3rd year if you didn’t know them) But by Christmas in 3rd year, we needed to know them (my birthday is in march, so I wasn’t even nine when I knew them). I remember this clearly because my 3rd year teacher created a fun (and competitive) game and if one wanted to collect the most stickers in his or her notebook (to show the parents), one needed to know them ;-)