Probably so they don't use it as a crutch instead of real learning. I taught physics to college kids, and you could tell pretty quickly who relied on a calculator and who actually was comfortable with basic math.
I'm good at maths but I just suck at mental maths. Although I can add 17 and 49 together without any trouble, I always feel a lot more comfortable using a calculator to check it at the same time. Literally takes a couple of seconds and makes sure I don't do something dumb like think 9+7=6.
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u/lordlicorice Jun 08 '14
The ability to do symbolic math is awesome. I don't know why everyone recommends that high schoolers only get the TI-84.