You have no idea how appropriate that statement is. When they taught me to add and subtract, they taught me using a number ruler in the first grade. In the second, they took the ruler away so we'd "memorize" or whatever the additions and subtractions. I refused pretty much -- figured out how to use a clock as a number ruler which worked till my mom caught me at it and took all the clocks down in the house. I was a very unhappy kid till we left that behind for multiplication in the third grade. *laughs at self*