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We need to do away with technology in the classroom at the younger levels. Too many children don't know basic arithmetic like the times tables. Often their IEPs (Individual Education Plans) allow them to use calculators or cheat sheets. Yes, you have to memorize the tables, that's the point. No one has enough fingers or the time to count it all out. Memorize.
At the HS level, the math teachers I know all complain that today's kids won't accept that they got a problem wrong.
"But I set it up correctly! Don't I get partial credit?"
"There is a correct answer and you didn't get that, so no."
The issue is that at the HS level, math is concrete and has correct answers. The other wussy subjects allow options to be correct, and kids expect that in math. They (and their parents) grow truculent when a Fascist Math Teacher expects the kid to give the correct answer.
There is nothing sadder (or more frustrating) than to try to complete a purchase at a store where there is a power failure and the check-out clerk has to add up the prices, calculate the tax and make change (since the credit cards won't work).
May as well pay with sheep or pigs.
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"The case of Great Britain is the most astonishing in this matter of inequality of rights in world soccer championships. The way they explained it to me as a child, God is one but He's three: Father, Son and Holy Ghost. I could never understand it. And I still don't understand why Great Britain is one but she's four....while [others] continue to be no more than one despite the diverse nationalities that make them up." Eduardo Galeano, SOCCER IN SUN AND SHADOW
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