Schools, etc. (was Re: "Dummies" books (was ...))

[John Esak]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: filepro-list-bounces at lists.celestial.com
> [mailto:filepro-list-bounces at lists.celestial.com]On Behalf Of Kenneth
> Brody
> Sent: Tuesday, October 26, 2004 1:20 PM
> To: Fairlight
> Cc: filePro List
> Subject: Schools, etc. (was Re: "Dummies" books (was ...))
>
>
> Fairlight wrote:
> [...]
> > If someone can't handle that elementary logical progression of
> thought, I
> > don't trust them near anything more complex than the pocket calculators
> > that banks give out as freebies--certainly not a programmable graphing
> > calculator like a TI-60 or HP-48.
> >
> > And as for math, that's the sole reason I never got a CS
> degree.  I failed
> > pre-calculus in high school and gave up higher math as a bad lot.  As CS
> > was considered an engineering degree at my university, there was no way
> > in hell I thought I could make it through five semesters of calculus.
> [...]
>
> I was actually talking about this sort of thing the other day with Laura
> and her sister.
>
> When I was in 7th grade, hand-held calculators were just starting to come
> into the hands of "ordinary people", and I actually bought one for my 13th
> birthday.  <http://www.datamath.org/BASIC/DATAMATH/ti-2500-3.htm>
>  (Hey, us
> math geeks gotta start early, you know.)  This was also the last year that
> they tought how to use the slide rule in math.  Soon thereafter,
> the school
> implemented a "no calculators during tests" rule, since it was considered
> "cheating".
>
> By the time I got to college, the entire attitude had changed.
> Calculators
> were no longer a problem, as the professors were more interested
> in "do you
> know the proper formula to use, and how to use it" rather than if you knew
> how to do long division.
>
> --
> +-------------------------+--------------------+------------------
> -----------+
> | Kenneth J. Brody        | www.hvcomputer.com |
>            |

I just downloaded from audible.com Isaac Asmiov's Greatest... it had in it
two short stories about the far future (now?) when simple paper math was
completely forgotten... very good things I had read 40 years ago... still
good today.

John