Once calculators hit the scene I realized computation was doomed. I would not allow my kids to use them until they were proficient doing it manually.
Blaming this on the schools is silly. Schools today frequently teach statistics, adv, statistics, calculus even adv. calculus. Getting a good education is like always dependent upon the student. If he wants one he can get it. But it is alway convenient to blame the schools.
I remember using a slide rule. But that took brains and knowledge of powers of ten.
I seriously doubt if most kids today would even be able to figure out what the thing was used for. They'd probably think it was a carpenter's measure.