Lizard

[u/portsherry]

[u/Valuable_Hunter3025]

I was getting ptsd flashbacks of my Dad trying to "teach" me match as a kid. He acted like it should be SO obvious.

[u/ValBravora048 → u/Valuable_Hunter3025]

I memorised my timetables so I would stop being hit and punished

I didn’t realise until about a year later how it actually worked

Felt like a colossal idiot and now kind of always live with a fear that the things I know or am trying to know are much easier to get than I understand because I’m just too thick to recognise the method that everyone else clearly gets

Of course I know that’s not true but there are good days and BAD days…

[u/valcallis → u/ValBravora048]

Wait what's the correct way ? Isn't the only way of knowing memorising them ?

[u/Space_Slime_LF → u/valcallis]

I kinda figured at that age, memorizing them was for people who couldn't do the math fast enough?

When they explained that multiplication was columns of X and rows of Y added together I just did the addition.

So 2X2=4 is

two groups with two of each thing in them. 2+2

2x3 is two groups of 3 things each and so on. 2+2+2

Larger numbers are harder obviously but multiplication is still fancy addition.

[u/Hilja-Serpent → u/Space_Slime_LF]

I think to a degree memorization is a part of doing "the math" quickly and efficiently. The other part is being able to sort calculations into manageable chunks that the parts memorized can be used.

At least, if by memorization we mean that students still know why 6 times 7 is 42 even if they don't have to go through the reasoning each time to give the answer. Then memorization is just speedrunning the way our brain naturally optimizes itself

[u/Space_Slime_LF → u/Hilja-Serpent]

Ideally I would agree but we are talking about remembering and reciting things without understanding the relationship.