Students’ calcs in the 70s/80s

[Peter Klein]

(01-02-2024 08:19 PM)Johnh Wrote:  When you take a problem apart and understand it to a point where you can code it into some computational device, you really get to understand it.

This is key. I remember that when calculators first became widespread in the mid-70s, some parents grumbled. Students would not learn basic arithmetic skills, and this, along with rock music(*) and relaxed dress codes, was dumbing down that would lead to the collapse of Western civilization. What they didn’t realize was that every advance in technology leads to the “black boxing” of lower-level details. But this enables people to do more and solve more complex problems.

I attended high school a little earlier, just before the availability of scientific calculators. Interested students could hang out in the computer lab with DEC PDP-8 and PDP-11 machines. We had to solve a few initial problems from each math lesson on paper. But we then got full credit if we wrote a BASIC program to solve the rest. Some parents objected that we weren’t learning our ‘rithmetic. Meanwhile, we were also writing routines in machine and assembly languages. We learned skills that could form the foundation of a career.

Some people have never understood that beyond the most basic level, the key to learning is conceptual thinking. Calculators and computers allow that much better than rote memorization and endless drilling. (And yes, I realize that just typing in an equation from a book does not mean you understand it. And that some people will only acquire the most basic math skills, and only with a lot of drilling. One size does not fit all).

(*) A case could be made for civilizational decline in the case of much rock music, but that’s another subject for another day. ;-)

-Peter