Not just a "NobelPrize" winning singer hitting the high notes . . . but also math skills that we still need.
Posted on 12/18/2011 10:06:54 AM PST by no gnu taxes
I'm talking about the old multiplication and long division calculation methods. I know what you are probably thinking. That I am some public school advocate, even though I was pissed as hell when my kindergarten daughter asked me if I knew the happy kwanzaa song.
But are these really useful anymore? I mean you can buy a calculator for $1 that does all these things and the software developers didn't use those methods for creation of the devices. Did you even understand why these algorithms worked at the time you were taught them?
Not trying to be controversial; just want to know what you think.
Not just a "NobelPrize" winning singer hitting the high notes . . . but also math skills that we still need.
Learning basic mathematical operations is an essential first step to understanding and being able to perform the symbolic manipulations used in algebra and all higher mathematics. You can’t learn physics, chemistry, or any engineering without being able to understand and do symbolic mathematical operations. So not learning how to do “old fashioned arithmetic” pretty much ensures that the student won’t be able to graduate from high school, or take college level classes in any technical subject.
I can’t begin to tell you the number of teenaged cashiers unable to make change. If the bill is $14.77 and you give them $20.02, they have to call their supervisor if they try to perform the transaction manually.
I taught my children Saxon Math through 8th grade with no calculators, then a quick calculator course to get them up to speed for HS math.
“Someone, somewhere has to know those methods in order to create the calculators for lazy people to use. If you stop teaching them they fall out of common knowledge and eventually are lost. We’re not teaching the slide rule anymore, but that’s because it’s no longer needed.”
Very true; I earned an engineering degree using a slide rule (still have it) before calculators were available, and one had to be able to mentally estimate the expected answer in order to know where to put the decimal point. Same with calculators to some degree; otherwise, “fat-fingered” input errors will never be recognized as yielding a wrong answer.
JC
Good point; I used to be able to pass multiple-choice tests involving numbers in subjects matter I knew nothing about easily by tossing the high and low answers, then making somewhat educated guesses on what was left over! In those days (before the educrats got educated), if you had no idea whatsoever, answer “C” was usually a good guess about half the time...
JC
“Witness people bemoaning the fact that half the population is below average!”
Worse still, nowadays kids are taught that everyone of them is above average in order to boost their so-called “self esteem”! I pity the poor dupes when they hit the real world. Some of those “above average” performers can’t even make correct change down at the McDonalds burger place.
JC
“EMP attacks won’t wipe out your memory nor disable slide rules.”
AND the graphite in pencil lead isn’t long enough to generate enough current to melt the eraser on top either!
JC
Same thing with directions absent GPS. If you know where you are and what direction you need to go to get to your destination, you can eventually get there fairly easily by referring to a map and looking for relevant road signs on the way to find the exact address. Absent a compass and a sense of direction, folks need to know how to determine direction by the sun’s position and time of day. Most people have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA!!
JC
Yep, and Obama is still trying to find out how many millions in a Brazilion!
JC
Math teaches students to think logically and it is the very best tool, bar none, for teaching that skill.
I see your question from time to time. But, imo, asking whether or not students need to learn the basics of arithmetic anymore is a little like asking whether or not they need their legs, since we have such excellent motorized wheelchairs nowadays.
THE MACHINE STOPS - E.M. Forester (1909)
http://www.tcnj.edu/~miranda/classes/topics/reading/forester.html
I’ll have to read it.
BTW, C.S. Forester is one of my favorite authors. “The Ship” and “Brown on Resolution” are two of my favorites.
“I’m in my early 50s and I’m the only one of my peers who took Latin in HS. And I didn’t know they quit teaching trig - guess I was born too soon...”
I’m in my mid-60’ and took Latin in the 8th Grade. I’m so grateful to Mrs. Clapper, my Latin teacher, even though we all thought that she was Ray Nitschke’s bigger, older, meaner sister. I was terrified of her, but she made me learn a bit of Latin.
“EMP attacks won’t wipe out your memory nor disable slide rules.”
POST! K&E!
Slide Rules....RULE! ;-)
It is amazing how much stuff was designed (preliminary design) using just three significant digits!
People raised on calculators will give you a 6 or 8 significant digit answer just because that’s what the calculator says, despite their having only 2 or 3 significant digit input data. Journalists writing about science & technology are especially bad about this. They believe that it is proof of precision.
“I have a collection of slide rules including circular ones.”
Aaahhh, the good old E6B (”whiz wheel”) flight computer.
Vashti and her lectures reminded me of the Simon & Garfunkle Song, "The Dangling Conversation".
Verse 3
"Yes, we speak of things that matter,
With words that must be said,
"Can analysis be worthwhile?"
"Is the theater really dead?"
And how the room is softly faded
And I only kiss your shadow,
I cannot feel your hand,
You're a stranger now unto me
Lost in the dangling conversation.
And the superficial sighs,
In the borders of our lives."
The Apollo program, SR-71, and a whole buch of other cool stuff was figgured out with slide rules. The primary hard drive for this tool is the mind and that device seems to fallen in favor to a bit of cognative beach sand.
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