[Al Skierkiewicz]

Interesting discussion about something that is largely just another tool. Calculators, slide rules, pencil and paper are all just tools. They don't make students better at math or calculus. They don't make them better engineers or scientists. They do make work easier. They can help get the job done faster, just like a power saw can cut a board or a power screwdriver can get something mounted in 1/4 the time. Calculus wasn't offered in my high school and likely I wouldn't have had the time to take it. Just trig took forever. Can you imagine having to look up the sin of 44 degrees in a table then try to calculate a four or five decimal place answer and get all the decimal points in the right place? A problem that takes a few seconds on a calculator took an half hour looking through the tables in a book and using a pencil and paper.
Another thing to ponder is cost. At the time I bought my first slide rule (1969), a Post Versalog, the student discount was nearly twenty times the minimum wage. I bought a Sharp pocket scientific calculator with more functions (including integration) than I can count (179 or 241 depending on what you believe) for $4.95 yesterday at Fry's. At that price there is almost no excuse not to have one in your back pocket and it is solar powered.
Tools give you the advantage to not use a limited amount of time performing simple tasks by hand. But the fundamental problem still remains. Students need to know why they are learning something. I didn't figure it out until I was in college and then it was tendered by a little "I don't want to work for minimum wage doing something I don't like". I couldn't see why we needed to study history for instance. Now I know that I don't want to reinvent the wheel for every project and learning history has given me the knowledge that someone has been here before. (did you know that slide rules were invented in the 1700's following Napier's work?) English has given me the tools to communicate and to appreciate the writings of others. Latin has given me insight to words in foreign languages, and Foreign Culture has given me the humility to understand others.
Now that I am approaching retirement, I still find myself thinking about school and learning. Take a look at my sig, learning something new everyday is important to me. A student gets that chance one hundred times over everyday. Why do homework? To get good at something. The first time you picked up a screwdriver, you likely hurt yourself, but you kept picking it up. Learn to use the tools, get good at studying, don't let something small get in your way, learn something new everyday.