[SLL] Great day for linux OLPC

[Wendell Cochran]

On Wed, 03 Jan 2007 03:08:17 -0500
"Nicholas Bodley" <nbodley at speakeasy.net> wrote . . .

> . . . kids should learn arithmetic before depending upon
> calculators. . . .


Quite so.  But the issue may be improperly polarized.

Long ago -- 1983, I think it was -- I attended a symposium in
Washington, D.C., at the annual meeting of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science.  The topic was something like
'Calculators in the Classroom, Pro & Con.'

The first two speakers contended, predictably, that calculators
should be banned from grade schools.  They reasoned that a pupil
must assimilate the basics of arithmetic -- notably the
multiplication table to times 12 -- FIRST.  Electronic aid LATER.

The third speaker merely described his own experience in the
classroom, where he regularly stressed flashcard-like drill with
oral response from the class.  Calculators?  Yes; I think he even
advertised the drill an introduction to use of calculators in
arithmetic. 

Each drill, he reported, began slowly as pupils punched out (say) '9
x 12 =' . . .  & cried out the answer displayed.  But very soon they
found wetware faster than fingers -- & each strove to be the first
to shout '108!'.  One by one the calculators were abandoned,
voluntarily, with no loss in learning.

At that point the symposium died by consensus.

Now if only the OLPC boxes will be introduced with equal wisdom.

Wendell Cochran
West Seattle