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mknod  ·  4048 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: The Smarter You Are, The Stupider You Are

Actually flagamuffin, this is exactly the thing they teach in the book! By the way, just to be clear I think that doing mental math is absolutely one of the best skills one can acquire.

I was just wondering if b_b gave them a sort of aptitude test of if it was a general rule. If a student walked in and he gave them what's 111 x 23 or if it was more on a general "Oh I found this by calculating 111 x 23 in my head". Not sure if I am explaining myself clearly here.

I do not think there is anything wrong with pushing kids. People might conflate "pushing" with "punishing". This is not the case. In teaching I have noticed that often times there is a heavy mental barrier for most kids. By pushing them you get them past that barrier and into where they need to be.

Honestly, I just love thinking about the different ways to teach this stuff. Maybe I'll go through some of them with a self post one day, it's a bit off topic for this post.