I agree. For learning, the method shown is fine. Why? Because it teaches and honors place value, an extremely important concept in developing numeracy. I'm fine with any method that uses that.

I am not fine with something my kids call the "lattice method." The point of this method is simply to get the correct answer for multiplying large numbers. Is it clever? Yes. Does it work? Yes. But it does not teach math. If the educators' goal is simply to give a technique that works and gives the correct answer, teach them to use the calculator on their cell phones.

Lattice method for multiplication:

http://www.coolmath4kids.com/times-tables/times-tables-lesso...