We have the internet for looking up history. So let’s not waste our time teaching our kids.
Oh and spell check is readily available. Screw spelling class.
You’ll take my slide rule and abacus from my cold dead hands! Seriously the method needs understood first before the simplifying tools are provided. I can’t tell you how many times ive had to backtrack to find input/calculation errors in formulas that the calculator or computer were happy to spit out. It is similar to spellcheck skipping words that are improper grammatically but spelled correctly. Kids need to understand the ideas and processes first.