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[quote=Anonymous]A friend tried to convince us to join their soroban class when my kids were little, but I didn’t think it was a good use of time.

It does increase calculation speed and accuracy, but if you think of math as a mix between computation skills (522-93=429) and reasoning/problem solving skills (what is the ideal pen shape for a cow if you have x lengths of fence and want to maximize area), then computation skills are much less important. I don’t think fast arithmetic is as worth practicing as good problem solving skills, persistence, and being able to set up the right  math question. I do think that being good at arithmetic is helpful because it leaves more brain space for reasoning, but I don’t like soroban because it excludes all the reasoning and just concentrates on arithmetic speed.

It also requires a narrow view of calculation. When my kid sees “18x5”, I want them to see “50 + 40” or “9x10” and “100 - 10” as possible ways to solve, because that type of number sense will help them be flexible when they see binomials and other algebraic expressions.  [/quote]

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