[kaitai]

It's important that we marry viewpoints when looking at what we call "meaningful". I spend a lot of time right now with a 6/7 yr old. This child does not care about meaning. This child likes to solve arithmetic problems one after another. It's motivating -- it's like a game -- the kid gets them right and gets a thrill. Word problems? Well, the math ability is outstripping the reading ability right now so 2000 x 2000 x 2000 is way more fun than reading some stupid sentence about tulips.

I've spent plenty of time on math (PhD in algebraic geometry) and educating people, and for sure when I taught college freshmen and master's students I spent a lot of time challenging folks to engage their minds, spirits, and intellect. At the same time, we have to admit there is a stage of childhood where kids just love memorization and facts. Dino facts, shark facts, math facts, Pokemon facts, My Little Pony facts, whatever. Let's not force kids to reckon too much with meaning when they're in the facts for facts sake stage -- and once they've got their impressive facts list, they'll make sense of the meaning much more easily, as discussed in the article and here!

[jacobolus]

> This child likes to solve arithmetic problems one after another.

Cool. If I try that with my 5 and 7 year old, they shout "boring" and run to the far side of the house.

> math ability is outstripping the reading ability

Presumably you can read problems aloud to the 6 year old. But also, kids can (if taught; this is by no means a necessity) learn to read much earlier than they can learn to write numbers with a pen. My two kids both could read very well by about the time they turned 4.

[andoando]

I think you're highly generalizing. I hated any kind of memorization as a child for example.