Not long ago, I mentioned the problem of boring – and bored – teachers, and by pure coincidence I met a truly enthusiastic teacher, just a few days later. In fact, Marian Moncek is not a teacher at all; but he has evolved a delightful way of teaching children multiplication tables quickly and painlessly. Marian guarantees that he can teach a class all their tables in five hours, even if they are not very bright. Normally, it takes a couple of years. And it all depends on story – telling. Young children love stories and Marian discovered that his three daughters enjoyed the funny little stories he used to tell them; and they remembered them in detail. Later, when his youngest daughter struggled with her arithmetic, Marian decided to teach her in stories.”Just think, if I say ‘Snow White’ you immediately think ‘seven dwarfs’. If I mention the big bad wolf, you think ‘three little pigs’.”“Once you get to associate a story with a number, it sticks in your mind for instant use.” Using this as a basis, Marian has created a little story for every part of the multiplication table. They’re simple and they‘re silly, but they stick in the mind.
Each number, from one to ten, is represented by a character. An egg is number six, because there are six eggs in a carton. Number three is a pig and zero is big fat stomach. Zero eats everything he meets in the stories, so if you multiply anything by zero, you just get left with zero. See? I think his book of silly stories could evolutionize the teaching of tables. He has published it himself and few bookshops have shown an interest. I believe you can get copies for $20.00. This is pretty cheap for getting your tables to stick in your mind forever.