I’ve never known my times tables. Frankly, who needs them? | Peter Bradshaw

The ministerial diktat to make children learn multiplication by rote is silly. Surely there are more important thingsWhat’s nine sevens? Quick, quick! Nine sevens. Now, some people can answer that straight away, with a querulous little singsong intonation in their voice, as if to say: “Sixty-three, of course, how dare you insinuate that my basic education is somehow lacking?” And then they will often – in a jokey but deadly serious way – challenge you to one in retu