arithmetic

Even something as simple as arithmetic is related to our remaining a first-world country. Don't you think so? Wouldn't it be a good idea if all the schoolkids had to memorize their multiplication tables from 1 to 10 before they graduated from elementary school? Don't you think they could do it? After all, it's basically rote memorization, right? Only later might it sink in what these relationships actually are. And it would give kids a certain basic confidence around numbers that might lead on to further mathematical understanding. It's that kind of understanding-- that logical-mathematical intelligence-- that will keep us in the ranks of the first-world nations.