A mother's worry

While having lunch today, Coco was asking me to teach her multiplication.
She said that her two best friends were asking her if she knows what '7 x 1' is, and she kept quiet.

I feel bad about not teaching her in advance.

She must have felt embarrassed that she didn't know multiplication tables.
I taught her on the spot using 2 drink cans to illustrate '1 x 2' and got her to imagine for '3 x 2'. She sort of grasp the gist of multiplication, that the principle behind it is to keep adding. She was excited that she 'know about times' already.

I promised her that I'll teach her more about it after my exams.

The incident also makes me wonder if not wanting to admit ignorance is good for her character development. For someone as little as Coco, I find it appalling that she seems to think that 'I don't know' is something shameful. Although I do agree that it seems to be better than not feeling anything at all about not knowing something, since feeling embarrassed about being ignorant implies some degree of earnestness in wanting to know something that you don't know, and generally, only stupid people (like myself) would readily admit that they don't know, I find it abit worrying that for a child her age, Coco doesn't want to come across as being inferior to her friends, or think that "I cannot not know this". I feel that it has some implications on her character development.