[jmilloy]

The child isn't being punished.

The child wasn't right.

That's okay.

They child might not know it's okay. In that case, they should receive support.

Getting marked wrong doesn't help get rid of the fear of failure; we agree about that. Not sure why you got the impression I thought otherwise.

Many people in the thread are reacting against the lesson and grading because of how they feel, not about how the child feels. That's why how they feel matters, when discussing it in an ultimately irrelevant forum.

[aninhumer]

The purpose of marking a test is to communicate to the child whether they understand the topic. Marking an almost correct answer wrong (without elaboration) is bad feedback.

The problem that people are raising here isn't how the child feels, it's how the child thinks. And one thing they might think as a result of this answer is "Oh, I guess multiplication isn't the same both ways. I must have been mistaken." and it might take some time for this misunderstanding to clear up.