Ok, yesterday, I posed a question for old (excuse me, mature) folks about women and do you remember.  Some on their way to Adulthood (ok!  You can be adults!), chimed in as well.  But this question is for everyone.  Us old (mature geezers) and the New Adults (how is that for PC?).

How much math can you do in your head?  Without benefit of a calculator (for the ones that never saw the series "Dukes of Hazzard", 'cack-a-lator' was what Boss Hogg called a calculator).

Seriously.  How bad have we gotten?  Can you look at 2 products with differing prices and weights/volumes, and figureout the best value?  That is simple math.  How about Algebra.  Can you figure out the best solution to a deck or ramp given the basic parameters?

This is not a generational thing actually.  My wife just called and was asking me math questions for her tutoree.  Not hard ones (if you need a GREAT Paralegal in Family or Bankruptcy law, she can save you a ton!).  But she was unsure.  As are most of the people I deal with daily.

I got a 'cack-a-lator' when I graduated from High School. It could do the 4 basic math functions.  Add, subtract, multiply and divide.  That was it.

I took chemistry and learned how to compute the avagodro (sp) number on paper.  I did calculus on pages of paper (no, I dont do that in my head, just rough estimates).  yet none of my kids have ever had to attack math without a calculator.  And I suspect most of the youth today dont either.

Can you figure a square root without one?

Mason wrote an article about Power and how we were Junkies.  but it goes beyond that.  We are junkies of technology.  As we are rapidly losing the abilty to do simple math without it.

I find myself an oddity.  Friends like to challenge me on math things with their friends only to prove I can compute the square root of a number to 1 decimal point with out benefit of a calculator off the top of my head (you want more decimal points?  Give me a few minutes).

And that worries me.  Calculators are fine.  But not in a classroom. 

What am I saying?  Gack!  A calculator is just a simple computer!  Do I not want computers in classrooms?

Actually that is what I am saying.  teaching Computers as a part of the curriculm is fine.  using them as a part of it is not.  And neither are calculators.  Figuring out how much farther you can go on a quarter tank of gas should be a mental exercise, not a computer one.  But we are becoming dependant upon the machines and that does scare me.

For without the machines, we then cannot survive.

Or maybe I am just an old fart that worries for nothing.  Cashiers dont need to know how to add and subtract any longer.  Students are not being taught that, only which buttons to push.

yea, I am an old fart.  But that does not mean I have to like every thing about modern technology.  Basics should be learned before our children spout "I found it on Google".