Maybe I am old fashion (46), but how is anyone going to learn to use their brain when getting educated when they have a machine do it for them? Just bugs me that they are using calculators to take a test, these things are not everywhere in real life.
The problem is that by the time a kid is 12 he should have enough understanding of the mechanics that a calculator is an appropriate tool. If they're not beyond the basics by then, they're at a permanent disadvantage.
I'm saying this from the perspective of someone who went to a public school in the 1970s in a system that was pretty mediocre. We were doing algebra in grade 5 and trig in grade 7.
I always have a calculator near me. I have a TI-83 in my backpack, and there's one on my cell phone and PDA. I think for today's kids, they are everywhere in real life.
I think calculators are not the issue, the problem is with the curriculum. I was a math whiz in school and as soon as calculators became affordable I concluded that long division was the most useless skill that any human could possess. Whether one is using a calculator or a series of mechanical steps the result is the same but in either case you walk away with absolutely no understanding of how numbers work or why they are a pretty handy invention.
IMNSHO I think math teachers in the early grades should get rid of both pencils and calculators and just hand out a slide rule to every kid. They'd learn a lot more about the nature of numbers that way.