Computers in classrooms aren’t that important, but learning how
to do the math certainly is
I would like to say that I am disappointed in Ben Anderson’s Aug. 22 column, but that would not be entirely accurate. I am furious.
Mr. Anderson calls the lack of computers in school district classrooms appalling. He claims that we are raising a generation of kids who are not tech-savvy. Curiously, he cites the statistic that 70 percent of American 4-year-olds have used computers to bolster his opinion.
He also cites MySpace’s enormous popularity to complain that our kids are not tech-savvy.
Mr. Anderson, our 4-year-olds use computers (and TV’s, DVD players, and microwave ovens.) Our teenagers use MySpace, instant messaging, text messaging, email, internet, cell phones, iPods – whatever technology gets invented tomorrow, our teens will master before their elders finish reading the instruction manual. Our kids are tech savvy – if tech savvy means they can use technology.
But most of them are not tech smart. They can use technology, but they cannot invent it, design it, manufacture it, or even repair it. They cannot design it because they cannot do math.
Our teens are not fluent in English. They think that Dickens wrote in Old English. They cannot diagram sentences or graph parabolas “heck, most of them cannot multiply 8 by 7.4 without a calculator. They do not know the difference between it’s and its. Our kids do not need more tech in the classroom. They need an 18th century education, so they can learn how to think.
Let me tell you about two very math-bright (and very pretty) girls. Michelle knows how to graph a quadratic function: she isolates y, completes the square on x, graphs the axis of symmetry, vertex, y-intercept, and the point that is symmetrical to the y-intercept, and voila! draws a parabola through the points. She uses a pencil and a piece of graph paper. It takes her about two minutes.
Cassandra (not her real name, and she does not live in Gilroy) does not know how to graph a parabola. She does not recognize a quadratic function when she sees one. But she has a TI-83, so she pushes buttons to enter the formula and voila! A parabola appears on the screen. It takes her about two minutes also.
Mr. Anderson cites other non sequiturs. He is alarmed because only 1.3 million people graduated college in the United States, as opposed to 3.1 million in India and 3.3 million in China. If that were the whole story, Mr. Anderson, you could relax. The U.S. has only 300 million people; India has 1.13 billion and China 1.3 billion. Our ratio for college graduates is better than either of theirs: .0043, compared to .0028 and .0033 respectively.
But the alarming thing is that a huge percentage of the math and science graduates of American universities are Indian and Chinese, not American. U.S. companies complain that they need to import engineers, scientists and doctors from India and China because our tech-savvy kids are not learning algebra and trig.
In my opinion, our kids are too busy talking on their cell phones and playing World of Warcraft to do anything hard – such as learn to graph a parabola.
Having more computers in the classrooms is not going to increase the number of kids who master the long division algorithm and fractions in fifth grade, and if they don’t, they will not be able to divide polynomials or solve rational equations in eighth … or 12th.
If anything, having more computers in the classroom will hurt our kids’ ability to do math. I have seen kids who learn algebra via video and computer programs. They can only guess whether the answer is a, b, c, or d. They cannot remember which is the x-axis and which the y. Forget about calculating the slope.
Using calculators and computers instead of learning math with mind, pencil, and paper is like building the Tower of Babel on three feet of air.
Cynthia Anne Walker is a homeschooling mother of three and former engineer. She is a published independent author. Her column is published in The Dispatch every week.
