Role of Calculators in Schools :: essays research papers

For adults, math is used in umteen ways, from configuring sales tax and tips to figuring gas mileage and averages but for children it sometimes seems as if the only time for math is for homework and tests. The initial decide for schools in this department is for the savants to see and understand the practical uses of it, however it is polemic that the use of teaching with calculators changes this idea. In the short essay Ditch the Calculators, the designer Diane Hunsaker insinuates that the overuse of calculators in math class defeats the ultimate goal of development expanding the mind and increasing students abilities to function as contributing members of order. As society enters the twenty-first century it seems that teaching and learning has an entirely new perspective. It seems as though the new technologies that are introduced in school, computers and calculators, are not producing the alike effects that learning without them once had. As a college level student I f eel that, from my own experience, I am an advanced math student because the rules and principles were drilled into my memory and not that of a calculator at a young age. Depending on ones perspective, the use of calculators at the elementary school level is seen as either the solution to or cause of many of the problems affecting math education in this country. It has been know for a long time that early experience is able to phase the brain and behavior. In the stages of learning at a young age, to full grasp a concept, a child must understand the principles how and wherefore in order to apply any significance or simile to anything. This particularly applies to such a subject as that of math. Diane Hunsaker expresses her view as well in the following quote Math is as such(prenominal) about knowing why the rules work as knowing what the rules are (668). It seems that Hunsaker is saying that before rules can be applied, there must be a foundation for them. This concept for math, and in general, trains the mind by physical exertion regarding skills. It is apparent that she agrees by examining her direct statement, Math trains the mind. By this she also goes on to say, that by the ability to exercise these particular thinking skills that students are learning to think logically and rationally. I must say, that having the ability to think logically and rationionally in controlled situations has allowed me to progress outside the classroom.