The minicalculator: friend or foe?
Jesse A. Rudnick, Stephen K Rulik · The Arithmetic Teacher · 1976
The age of the is now! Not since the printing press has any invention had such potential for revolutionizing education, particularly mathematics education. Following closely on the heels of the new math and metrics, the minicalculator is creating greater controversy than either of its predecessors. The multitude of articles that appear in journals and the general press, as well as the number of sessions devoted to the calculator at NCTM meetings and the attendance at these sessions, give strong evidence that teachers, parents, and school administrators are interested in and concerned about its impact on the curriculum, the classroom, and the student. Uppermost in the minds of most persons, particularly parents, is whether the use of the calculator will impair the students' ability to perform the paper-and-pencil algorithms. Most educators who advocate the use of the calculator qualify their stand by stipulating that it not be used until after the students have, to some degree, mastered the operations. However, there is no evidence that dependence on the machine will