[ckissick]

It's the best approach to doing math, that is, multiplying from left to right instead of right to left. Those guys on TV who can multiply large numbers in their head do so by the method being taught to your 2nd grader, except they add the 12 to get 372.

For example, do this in your head:

563 X 6

say: (500+60+3) X 6

so you get:

500 X 6 = 3000
60 X 6 = 360 (this one looks familiar)
3 X 6 = 18
Equals 3378

It's not that hard. I have a book called Secrets of Mental Math by Arthur Benjamin and Michael Shermer that's pretty fun. With practice most people can learn to do pretty amazing things with math.

Let's hope the teacher goes the next step and gets the kids to add the 12 later on.