I agree with not allowing calculators. Education is supposed to make you learn to think. The ability to do math in your head is a good way to avoid falling for BS.
It’s a calculated risk.
I remember this, and they said allowing calculators would discriminate against children who had parents that could not afford them.
personally I think they should still be banned from elementary schools cause math is good to know.
the main difference is that calculators generally give you the correct answer unless you fat finger or misunderstand things, but AI will just flat out lie to you without a second thought.
1975.
Anyone old enough to have used a Victor Comptometer?
Many decades ago I taught a general math course in a public school. I taught things like estimation and percentages. And also doing basic calculations in your head.
Those skills are all gone now, replaced by a calculator. (Not my choice.)
The kids are much worse for it.
I still remember when having your own personal trig calculator was a big deal.
I was 100% surprised that schools let kids use calculators at a young age.
I was kind of a Math-whiz in H.S... Algebra/Trig/Calculus came easy and I enjoyed it.. Not sure if calculators would have helped back then... Also, it was funny the college bound folks asking my help - except the well-endowed girl who was very friendly.
I had no ambition for college, never liked school... The H.S. ended up graduating me with probably a 2.2 GPA just to get me out of there. I would probably been kicked-out except the H.S. hired my Mom as Security/Hall Monitor in the 11th grade...
HP 11C is probably better. The financial functions are just algebra.
And now math scores are abysmal
“Almost Intelligent”
My mom bought one to keep the books for an old-fashioned drive-in the family owned.
Just the basics with big keys. Probably paid hundreds for it.
About 1975.
No way that was allowed in school. All pupils had to show their work.
When we homeschooled, I wouldn’t let my kids use calculators until algebra.
When the equations got long enough that it was impractical to work them all out by hand, then they could use them. But by that time, I knew they had the proficiency to do most math in their heads.
At the end of my senior year in high school, the amazing math teacher Mr Bubb was going to retire. Mr Bubb was one of those teachers who loved teaching. And, he taught beginning math, as well as the very advanced levels. The year was 1973. There were 4-500 in our graduating senior class. We all contributed a dollar to purchase the latest and greatest HP calculator as the retirement gift.
When Mr Bubb opened the gift, he didn’t start crying, but you could tell how much it meant to him. A moment later, he returned to himself, and began explaining how he would use the gift while “retired.” He would continue exploring the world of mathematics.
I was never a mathematics major, but Mr Bubb’s ability and example of how to make the complex simple, and the inculcation that it could be explained in a regular way, always stuck with me. Off and on I taught GED in English and Spanish. Every time the math section came up, I thanked Mr Bubb. I even taught Middle School math for a few years. One day, as I was using one of the methods Mr Bubb used, a student asked “why don’t the other teachers use this (method)?” I used such times for what El Rush-Bo called the “teachable moments.” I explained that none of us, teachers or students, can control what others do. You can only control what you yourself do.
People like Mr. Bubb do indeed echo through eternity.
These instructors were so yesterday in 1986!
My instructors at Lowry Tech Tng Ctr, Lowry AFB, Co, in 1977 were telling us that if we brought our calculator, to bring spare batts, too. My electronic slide rule was a blue led, 3as battery model, NOT HP.
As an engineer, and a father, I think calculators should be banned for schools. Only 8n university, 9nce you know the basics of manually calculating division, multiplication, square and cube roots, integration etc should you be allowed calculators.
It is important to know the basic mechanics
They objected to slide rules before that.
I mentioned this in recent posts as an example of AI causing people to stop using their logical consciousness.