Calculators [was: Re: Raspberry Pi]

From: Seth Morabito <lists at loomcom.com> * On Thu, Feb 28, 2013 at 02:05:30PM -0800, Chris Tofu <rampaginggreenhulk at yahoo.com> wrote: Out of curosity, why? I certainly wish I could have had a calculator in class when I was in school, it would have made math much less tedious. I come from the awkward in-between era when calculators existed, but were not yet permitted in the classroom, or (God forbid!) on tests. My most unpleasant memories of math from grade school through high school were arithmetic.? The pointless drudgery and tedium of calculating rote answers on paper or in my head, instead of using my brain to solve REAL problems, put me off math until college. When I discovered what a joy algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and calculus were, I was even more angry at the years I spent doing times tables, addition, subtraction, and multiplication when a tiny machine could have freed me up to care about the more interesting stuff. Personally, I say every kid should be armed with a basic scientific calculator from the moment they start learning. Ban arithmetic and teach the fun stuff from the get-go. You'll get more engineers that way!? :) -Seth C: And you actually don't believe there's any merit in strengthening your problem solving ability by doing a certain number of rote calculating, particularly in the young mind? How do you move on to algebra, which is difficult enough for most people (a severe transition, probably much more so then transitioning from calculus to differential equations). And calculus apart from theory, which you nip in the bud in the first week for the most part, is all technique. That is algebra on steroids, or better yet crack. ?If you don't use it you lose it.