I remember Ian Aitken (Obituary, 23 February) from Tribune rallies in the 70s. Neil Kinnock’s appeal for money at these events was compelling, but a great help to him was Aitken’s response, raising his hand with, if memory serves me, a £20 note in it, a huge sum to most of the audience. They could…
As a retired teacher I was staggered to hear about the cumbersome methods of learning times tables still in use (Letters, 19 February). I taught them to seven- and eight-year-olds by regarding them as factors and multiples (9, 7 are the factors, 63 the multiple). Starting with smaller numbers, I would ask the children to…
I really am very grateful indeed for the long read on the Italian blackshirt movement (22 February) that slithers around the CasaPound in Rome as it will enable me to refute those who, when I am visiting the Vatican, suggest that I may have some sympathy with the foul creed of fascism, when this Pound…
Not a peep about ace cinematographer Roger Deakins winning yet another Bafta (Report, 19 February), this time for Blade Runner 2049, which makes him the most nominated director of photography in history who hasn’t won an Oscar. He will have to be content with his lifetime achievement award from the American Society of Cinematographers and…
Training regularly and vigorously in the lead up to the Rottnest Channel Swim (this Saturday 24 February) may sound like the main key to success, but a group of researchers from The University of Western Australia has a strategy it says will maximise performance on the day. The scientists, who are used to crunching numbers…
Mathematically mature readers respond to a recent Guardian article by Peter Bradshaw A teacher helps a schoolboy with his times tables. Photograph: Ian Shaw/Alamy The usefulness of multiplication tables lies not in their practical application – though they can help one to avoid being bamboozled by supermarket offers – but in the beauty and symmetry…
The ministerial diktat to make children learn multiplication by rote is silly. Surely there are more important things ‘Times tables are a Gradgrindian chanting fetish periodically revived by politicians who have never really needed times tables.’ Photograph: Dave Thompson/PA What’s nine sevens? Quick, quick! Nine sevens. Now, some people can answer that straight away, with…
Hosts of Good Morning Britain quiz minister overseeing new numeracy tests for children Nick Gibb said he had learned ‘never to answer these kinds of questions on live television’. Photograph: Alastair Johnstone / SWNS.com for the Guardian The minister responsible for new times table tests for primary pupils in England has refused on television to…
Teachers’ leaders express concern about test that becomes mandatory in England in 2020 Ministers hope the on-screen test for eight- and nine-year-olds will improve numeracy. Photograph: Ian Shaw/Alamy Tests to check whether eight- and nine-year-olds know their times tables will be trialled in some primary schools in England next month before being rolled out nationally.…
Alex Bellos’s Monday puzzle The solutions to today’s puzzles On the grid: a scene from 1982 film Tron. Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext/DISNEY On my puzzle blog earlier today I set you the following three problems about this grid: A polygon is a shape where each side is made from a straight line. Draw a polygon in the…