Memorization is a skill still valuable to us here at the end of the 20th century. So are the skills of number writing, the linear function of problem-solving on paper, and visually understanding numerical intervals. These concepts are first understood as kids undertake analogue , old-fashioned problem solving, in which the functions of addition and subtraction run their course in full view of student eyes. Perhaps our typically left-leaning calculator advocates will take a lesson from the UK's Labour Party. Under Tony Blair's education reforms, calculators in British schools have been banned for children under the age of eight.
Calculators can come later when the children can rely on their own mental skills.
After my disappointing public school encounter, I visited the private school my son now attends. The headmaster described the kindergarten math curriculum in-depth, copying a few textbook pages for me to take home. The school had fewer than 17 students per class, the pledge of allegiance was recited every morning, and calculators weren't used in kinergarten. The larger class sizes, mediocre curricula and the administrative ignorance regarding it proved this was true at our public school. Still, I haven't lost my affection for the calculator.