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Re: Laptop requirement?

John Barrere wrote:

[snip]

Of
course, here in the public high school environment,
abaci would be a help! John Barrere

I'm in favor of outlawing all calculators and requiring the students
to use slide rules. I mourn the loss of the art of mental arithmetic
amongst our students. It never ceases to amaze me that I can often to
a rough mental calculation of a relatively complex formula and come
within 10% of the answer that the students get on their calculators,
and usually in much less time. It often amazes the students, too, but
alas, not enough to get them to develop that skill.

Unfortunately, what they can do with a good graphing calculator is so
slick and so useful that the damned things are probably here to stay,
and the art of mental arithmetic will inevitably die out, probably
with my generation.

Hugh
--

Hugh Haskell
<mailto://haskell@ncssm.edu>
<mailto://hhaskell@mindspring.com>

(919) 467-7610

Let's face it. People use a Mac because they want to, Windows because they
have to..
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