It is useful to hold some math facts in memory. I don’t stop and think about the answer to 8 plus 4, because
I know that math fact. But I learned math facts through using them in different mathematical situations,
not by practicing them and being tested on them. I grew up in the progressive era of England, when primary
schools focused on the ‘whole child’ and I was not presented with tables of addition, subtraction or
multiplication facts to memorize in school. This has never held me back at any time or place in my life,even though I am a mathematics education professor. That is because I have number sense, something that
is much more important for students to learn, and that includes learning of math facts along with deep
understanding of numbers and the ways they relate to each other.