based on every school I ever worked in (ending almost exactly eleven years ago), nope. we've discussed this before. but I can add that when I was working (in both middle schools and high schools) "rote" was considered evil, even to the extent of "policy" forbidding that any time be wasted in class drilling the times tables. at the time, my comment was "what the fuck?" and that's still right where I am now. maybe the policy was based on the notion that every kid uses a calculator now. big, big mistake.