In the UK directives have similar potential for harm. The new national curriculum states that all students
should have ‘memorised their multiplication tables up to and including the 12 multiplication table’ by the
age of 9 and whilst students can memorize multiplication facts to 12 x 12 through rich engaging activities
this directive is leading teachers to give multiplication tables to students to memorize and then be tested
on. A leading group in the UK, led by children’s author and poet Michael Rosen, has formed to highlight
the damage of current policies in schools and the numbers of primary age children who now walk to school
crying from the stress they are under, caused by over-testing (Garner, The Independent, 2014). Mathematics
is the leading cause of students’ anxiety and fear and the unnecessary focus on memorized math facts
in the early years is one of the main reasons for this.