kcab, he's almost 7.
My base stance is from the rarity of people I've encountered who can do math in their head at the rate I can. I have a wide range of shortcuts and algorithms I use and constantly select different paths as I calculate. I do things automatically like keeping track of how much my groceries cost.
One of the more interesting fMRI studies of gifted kids is one showing how the brain goes haywire seeming to select the correct solution heuristic and then the brain highly focuses in that area. I'll encourage my son to try and be fast as I think that's a good path for internalizing more effective heuristic selection strategies.
If a child is floundering, then sure a single effective and consistent algorithm is great.
Val,
Most of her message was along the lines of saying the way we learned was best. Because she says so (and people who walked seven miles uphill in the snow...) and uses extreme examples of making investigations look silly. I'd question the Everyday approach (and their book content) which most of her critique is oriented towards but she takes aim at investigations by proxy.
Algorithms are best that work for the person. Some algorithms are more effective if someone has a strong working memory others use methods to reduce memory load.
