There is no clear-cut scientific distinction between arithmetics and mathematics, but they differ concretely in school. Numeracy concerns the daily social use of numbers (multiplication tables, additions and substractions to 10, 20 and 100, simple multiplications and divisions, “counting”, giving back the right change, etc.); this is what will be tested as well in social games as in school tests.

Arithmetic represents the fundamentum of the classical math curriculum in the primary school, and in our system all children are individually followed at their own level. Children must reach an excellent mastery of those tools, mainly through “drills” and frequent use in practical situations. Drills need not be disagreeable (no more than scales on the piano or stretching in sports), and it is with short but regular repetitions that such tables are best memorized and calculation is trained. A soon as possible, this practice will be carried out on the computer.

What we call “mathematics” is the part of the programme which requires comprehension and encourages pleasurable discoveries in the world of numbers and shapes. At the primary level, it means an in-depth understanding of the world of figures, and how they are used to write numbers, as well as the beginning of algebra and of Euclidian geometry.