trissgutza wrote:
I had some difficulties with math in elementary school--learning multiplication tables, etc. My elementary school teachers really emphasized memorization and that's not how I learn at all. As I got older I learned that I could visualize the computations and mathematical concepts as different kinds of shapes, and it got a lot easier. I got really fond of math in high school and I'm a math major now...lol.
Never understood memorization. How ridiculous.
It just seems to me that if you want to teach someone to travel around a city you show them how to reference a Map, but you don't make them memorize the entire map.
That's how I feel about memorizing multiplication tables. Just explain the concept to people. Instead of memorizing it you can reason it out to discover the number.
I swear instead of knowing all the multiples of 12 I'd rather just find it through addition by doing 12+12+12+12+12+12. Eventually through experience I might just remember it along with better comprehension from adding it myself.