Nylund said...
I'm a Ph.D. candidate who tutors undergrads for extra cash. The problem isn't just that these kids are reliant on calculators, its that they don't even know how to use them (or formulate problems). They think they can just type in the numbers they see on the page and whatever comes out will be right. They have zero sense of intuition of what a reasonable answer is. John works 8 hours a day, makes 6 widgets per hour, and gets paid 3 dollars per widget. Now what you're talking about is the difference between people who can do that in their head vs. people who need to type it into a calculator. Where the real problem is, is with the kids who, even with a calculator, will tell you the answer is 45,204 or 0.0054. (They seem to think that as long as they typed in the numbers from the problems at some point into the calculator, the answer it gives will be correct without any concern for what you're actually telling the calculator to do with those numbers).

I joke with friends that while I nominally tutor in economics, I actually teach fractions, basic algebra, and intuition. I make all the kids reason out what a "correct" sounding answer should look like. Heck, I'm happy when I can get them to understand that it should be more than 10, but less than 1,000. That's a huge step up from thinking that 0.000045 or 45,208 might be right!

Point being, its not just that the loss of intuition has created a reliance on calculators, its that the loss of intuition has made them incapable of realizing when they utterly fail at even using a calculator.

I've had students (at a "tier 1" school) that don't even get that .25 and 1/4 are the same thing. When I point out that our coin, "the quarter" is called that because its one quarter of a dollar, and how its also worth $.25 dollars, they are utterly blown away by this realization that 1/4 and .25 are the same thing. It makes me weep.

Reply Monday, May 30, 2011 at 11:45 AM

{{sigh}}

I see variations on this theme with the ~20ish+/- yo visitors nearby. No tykes yet.
Slide rules forced you to keep track of where the decimal point must go..
'Cancelling-out-nines' let you scan grocery receipts (when surprised!) to within a few cents, quickly.
'Significant figures' made one aware of the need for precision in [A] calc but in [B] ? maybe not-so-much.

In this County, 'General Science' subbed for Chem, Physics. (Probably to date, haven't looked at current curricula but will, anon.) As result, ones I've queried:
No idea about valence, acids/bases/salts -- nor Why knowing about baking soda can save your sight after a splash of HCl (swimming pool concentrate, etc.) ... along with the obvious water flush.
They never saw/touched a test tube nor did any 'lab' whatsoever. Apparently little-to-No idea of 'exponents'
(forget logarithms) or Why adding/subtracting such == multiplying/dividing. Etc.

(Already) We ARE The Eloi, something putatively un-Imaginable, just a few decades past.
Who does not Wish that to be .. exaggeration. Fortunately there are always outliers, just, most likely -- fewer for never having been nurtured
[and in many tribes: for Never having been respected, as in this anti-intellectual milieu inhabited by Tea Baggers and Evangelistas with Big Mics]

Either America will destroy ignorance or ignorance will destroy the United States.
http://www.goodreads...0710.W_E_B_DuBois

Ricketts House motto was/is: Stet fortuna Domus [Fortunately the House stands]
Well.. at least.. so-far: Stet fortuna The IGM :-)


PS Abacii are neat-o; alas, acquiring adequate skillz uses time one could employ, practicing the cornet..