Students’ calcs in the 70s/80s

[Garth Wilson]

I was in a classroom with 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grades all in one room.  For the 3rd- and 4th-graders, there was a large times table set up, probably 30" square, going up to 12x12, and somehow it sank in before I even needed it.  I never made any specific effort to memorize it, but it stuck.  My best friend in my same grade (2nd grade) later went on to become an electronics engineer, and yet somehow never did learn his times tables.  (Unfortunately he was later killed by a drunk driver, a repeat offender who should have been in prison!)