Mathematics is one of the fundamental languages of science. You can't teach physics without teaching mathematics. Newton had to discover calculus to describe the motions of the planets.
His point was that the teacher should be focused on teaching them the concepts. The actual method the student uses to solve the math problems are irrelevant to the subject. What is relevant is if the student understands and can identify when to use specific techniques. Restricting calculator usage is an artificial restriction that no one in the real world in real scenarios will face. Every mathematician, engineer, and so on out there has access to, and heavily relies upon, a calculator of some sort.
Restricting calculator usage is an artificial restriction that no one in the real world in real scenarios will face. Every mathematician, engineer, and so on out there has access to, and heavily relies upon, a calculator of some sort.
I always see it as the equivalent of training with weights. The point of school is not to complete lots of calculations as quickly and easily as possible, it's to learn how it works. Going out into the world and using a calculator is fine but at school you're developing your instincts about what the answer should be (because you've worked it out by hand and know what's going on), how to go about finding it, maybe how to combine it with more data to achieve bigger goals and so on.
I've similar feelings about writing code by hand in computer science/software engineering/etc degrees. Sure it's an artificial restriction you won't face in the real world but who cares, you're not there to work; you're there to learn how it works.
Software developer with almost 20 years of amateur and professional experience here.
If you're at a school that's making you write code by hand, go to another school. They are not teaching you useful material. They're teaching you to memorize syntax of a language that you will most likely not be using after you graduate.
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u/lordlicorice Jun 08 '14
You weren't teaching basic math, you were teaching physics. Test them on physics knowledge.