------------------------------<snip>-----------------------------
I have a fantasy that when spinning wheels were introduced Luddites
protested that their children would lose the skill of spinning yarn by
hand and the deep understanding of the nature of yarn.
I can neither spin yarn by hand nor by wheel, nor weave cloth, nor
tailor my own clothing, nor plow my garden with oxen, nor hunt the wooly
mammoth for food. I can do arithmetic by hand, or with a slide rule. But
all these things must be displaced to accommodate more relevant topics
in our educational curricula. Roman numerals and "English" weights and
measures should be soon to go, though an erudite, now infrequent,
contributor to this list is apt to protest. Roman numerals, abaci,
Napier's Bones, slide rules and Curta calculators are topics for history
of mathematics, not the mainstream.
----------------------------<unsnip>--------------------------------
I must respectfully disagree. When my "server" at the Golden Arches
doesn't understand that "half a dozen" McNuggets is the same as "Six",
and she's in her early twenties, I have to cast certain aspersions on
basic education in this country. When she can't make change because the
power failed and she can't do basic arithmetic, I have to wonder what's
being taught in school. When half, if not more, can't read an analog
clock, I get disgusted. These things are all basic skills that should be
learned by 4th grade; even reading your utility meters. (So many bills
are based on "estimates" that being able to compare estimates with
actual readings is a highly desirable skill.) What happens when your
calculator batteries go dead? Or when it's home on the kitchen table and
you're at the grocery store trying to figure out unit prices?
IMNSHO, there's no substitute for these kinds of basic skills.
Arithmetic, reading and writing are basic skills that form the
foundation for other "more relevant" skills.
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