Practical Math - Number Facts

'Ordinary folks' - those who are not teachers - sometimes criticize teachers for being too concerned about educational theory and not enough about the practical needs of students, their families and future workmates.

The challenge is, of course, that as a profession, education is an academic discipline which is founded on centuries of careful research and writing by our professional predecessors. It would be wrong, and quite foolish, to ignore the foundations laid at the beginning of general public education, and the myriad advances in understanding of learning and teaching that have taken place since then.
Nevertheless, people outside academic institutions often have quite clear expectations of teachers' work, and expect us to prepare our students to take their places as functional, productive members of society.

Number Fact Memorization

Number facts need to be memorized if one is to have any chance at using math for anything really useful, both in the classroom and in the outside world. This is one example in which setting a priority will fulfill aspirations in both contexts; students will need to recall number facts in lots of (all?) future math classes, and in "real life" also.

In this podcast Peter Price argues that number fact memorization is essential for all students.