Ever since "mental arithmetic" was updated to "mental calculation," official documents have succeeded in perpetuating several basic misconceptions and misunderstandings about this topic. This situation does not augur well for the successful teaching of mental calculation strategies to young children. In this article, the author takes issue with the advice for mental calculation in regard to addition and subtraction strategies. He discusses three of these strategies: (1) compensation; (2) complementary addition; and (3) counting on. (Contains 1 figure.)