Post #4022574

2026-07-23 00:03 UTC

I think I see how to reconcile the objection. The chief issue with teaching calculator-free #mathematics, as I was taught such stuff, is that it's all pen-and-paper stuff. That can be tricky for a lot of people for a lot of reasons, like physical difficulty with writing, neurological issues like dyslexia, eyesight...there's a lot of reasons people can find it tough to do figures on paper. But there are non-electronic computational aids, tons of them, and these should be in more common use I believe. There's no reason for there not to be multiple devices sold and in common use which aid in basic calculation. The abacus for example, or "Napier's Bones", or...heck there's huge books stuffed with the mathematical gadgets of a thousand civilizations. Human beings have been supremely inventive at figuring out ways to count and how to aid the memory of large numbers and so forth. (cont'd)

Replies (1)

@mxchara@seattle.pink 2026-07-23 00:08

How many people even know that? Racism must be a tremendous factor. The abacus? Too "Oriental" (sorry for that word.) But in general it feels like any mechanical method for aiding arithmetic and calculation has been dissuaded for multiple corporate reasons assisted by bigotry: all such methods can be derided as "primitive" and thus nothing any patriotic God-fearing American needs to touch. Not when there's cheap calculators. I have a lot of affection for cheap shitty calculators myself but (thanks I think to my RL father) that affection didn't sway my mind away from what I thought of as the pedagogical necessity of teaching pen-and-paper calculation. Calculators, I told myself, aren't always available. (cont'd)

Open ##4023589