[Fudd]

One of the good things my parents did was not let me use calculators until high school. It led to the situation where I was tutoring an engineering undergrad in mechanics. We had worked out the algebra to solve a problem, and the last step was to plug-and-chug the numbers. The equation was not trivial (multiplication, division, a square root or two), but as the student started putting numbers in his calculator, I looked at it and told him the answer was about 75. He gave me a "we'll see" look, and found the answer to be 72.4. He just could not believe I could do all that math in my head.

[RightWhale]

How about sliderules. Parents were royally annoyed when I bought a sliderule in 10th grade. But I used the thing and got so I could visualize it to some degree and get some quick answers without actually looking. Calculators are clunky and won't give you instant ballpark. A classmate memorized logs to 2 places, just the first page of the tables. Amazing things could be done with that, too.

[rwfromkansas]

I tried doing math in my head, and the teacher showed how to do it, but it just never worked for me.

I can obviously do basic stuff, but ask me to do an equation in my head....aint gonna happen.

You are lucky though; I think it is great when people are able to do that. I remember seeing some people who can do math, even very complex math, with amazing speed...a lot faster us drones using a calculator can figure it out.

[luckystarmom]

My fourth grader has never used a calculator for math. He is very bored with long division, but he knows how to do it.