[Busman747]

Originally Posted by Gayle

I remember when I was at school and you used to get marks for showing how you'd worked out the answer even if you got the wrong answer - surely that system wasn't right either. I mean, I'd far rather have the correct change by someone using mechanical means than them saying to me that their long division looked good..

Do you not feel then Gayle, that you benefited at school by being taught how to analyse a problem and come up with an answer step by step? I have never heard of anyone that had their schooling in the 60's/70's with the exception of yourself and the PC clowns that changed the system to be so critical. I would expect it of the youth simply because they are not aware of how effective the old way was.

Perhaps you can be thankful that you went to school just before these same idiots put through a policy of teaching spelling "as it sounds" The poor sods that received that load of tripe will suffer for the rest of their lives

As far as I am concerned, with good teaching, all but the few that do not have the ability should have a grasp of arithmetic and how it works before the age of 11, instead, we have kids that can text umpteen part-words a minute on their phones - - but tend to be brain dead when trying to hold figures in their head.