Liberty… what does it mean? Consider some antonyms of the word: subjugation, constraint, captivity, restriction. They all seem to point to a state where other individuals or authorities are in control of a person.

When the Declaration of Independence speaks of: “…Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness,” the preamble to the constitution includes among the purposes: “… secure the Blessings of Liberty –,” and the Pledge of Allegiance notes “… with Liberty and Justice for all.” Nowhere do we see any mention of: “but not for children.”

Yes, we all know that children are fragile, in need of sequential assumptions of freedom, and that schooling is “for their own good.” But what when it isn’t? The antonyms in the first paragraph are strikingly descriptive of the traditional classroom situation, and frequently they are not good for some, even many or all, individuals in the class. I’ll return to this point below.

A common explanation for Ellenville’s low rankings is the high poverty level and the high percentage of other-than-English spoken at home. But this should not impact math so heavily. Ellenville ranks in the lower quintile in elementary math proficiency.

Let’s put causes and blame aside. The fact is that the extremely low proficiency rate in math (and other subjects) both in Ellenville, and to a greater, usually lesser, degree elsewhere, comes down to one single impairment: the inability to memorize.

“Memorization” is the core to most testing in most subjects at the elementary level, remains so in high school, and though declining in import, continues in college, and even some more advanced post-college areas.

If a person does not memorize at an “acceptable” level that individual is handicapped in most academic testing. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA - 1990), and perhaps more to the point, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (1973), essentially require that people, most usually with visible, physical disabilities be given accommodation. This applies to non-visible mental disabilities as well.

Whether or not you like the terminology, people who cannot memorize, for instance the multiplication table, cannot function at the level required for their grade. Fortunately, the “reasonable accommodation” does not require any change in structure such as “special ed” or additional test time. A four-function calculator does the job. Also, as with eyeglasses, hearing aids, and other “accommodations,” the later-life environment almost never precludes their use.

Ask yourself how the performance on state assessments and standardized tests would be for the calculator users. And if you want to ask the real question (not how the performance on the test changes), it’s how would the performance of those students improve as they advanced through the curriculum?

This latter point is most important. Kids can’t study much of probability, statistics, or even deal with advanced topics such as square roots and quantitative science, until they’ve mastered arithmetic skills. Some never do, so they never can. And because of the long trudge from counting to adding, subtracting, multiplication, division, long division, fractions and decimals, one never gets on to the more important topics that math embraces until late in learning.

Now, as promised, I’d like to return to the damage done by lack of liberty.

Higher animals learn. In mammals, less so in birds, early development forms brain networks incorporating experience and outcomes. This is why “play” is so important. Whether for a male fawn butting heads with a big buck or a child playing with blocks, brain, and sometimes spinal cord pathways develop.

If we impede the play and learning, especially to train in skills that technology has made unnecessary or even obsolescent, we steal both time and neural pathway development necessary for the advancement of human endeavor.

A little-known fact is that although repetition can strengthen the neural pathway, an error strengthens the incorrect pathway. That’s why guessing or giving a wrong answer to a multiplication flashcard is so destructive. Even the single errors in memorizing a multiplication table can, and will, recur. Children should engage in no mental activity that gives an incorrect answer. Please re-read the previous sentence.

Hard to believe, but I was in a third-grade class where a boy sitting next to me was made to write on the blackboard, ten times, I will never say 7x8 = (I won’t give the wrong answer here, lest the error be transferred to your basal ganglia.) He may never have said it again, but I’ll bet he wrote it again. Children should deal with what they have right, and not with what they are not ready for and so get wrong.

An example outside of math memorization is early reading. Some children learn, quite naturally, to read at an early age. But teaching them tricks to make them early readers runs the risk of them using the tricks for the rest of their lives (such as subvocalizing) and in many cases induces permanent dyslexia.

And to return to the favorite tool of math educators, Cuisenaire Rods ®. Since these rods are visual and have no written or spoken linguistic demands or prerequisites – beyond their (very pleasing) colors, there are no errors in early play or later use in arithmetic.

And by the way, since they are in centimeter lengths of {1, 2, 3, … 10} children who use them discern metric lengths, areas, and volumes.

Parents… give your child a calculator as soon as he or she can read numbers.