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I don't know about that. Kids are still proud when they can do arithmetic in their head while society has been grumbling about adults who cannot do arithmetic w
by II2II 5y ago
I don't know about that. Kids are still proud when they can do arithmetic in their head while society has been grumbling about adults who cannot do arithmetic without a calculator for generations.
Personally, I think that kids should learn simple mental arithmetic. It's not that I expect them to use it when they become engineers or cashiers, but it is useful for making quick approximations. It is useful to know when they have to pull out a calculator to check the price they are being charged at the store or to know when to check what they fed the computer (since they have the tools to figure out when an answer is wrong).
- Dumblydorr 5y agoHonestly, just my personal experience here, but amongst millennials, no one cares if you bust out the calculator app to add all your scores in a board game. It's actually superior to mental math because you can see the list of all the points you've added, if you add 20 numbers together it's nice to see them all after for verification purposes. There's no societal expectation placed on us whatsoever, it's all about getting the right answer.
- II2II 5y agoSorry, I meant children (rather than anyone younger than you are, which seems to be how some people use the word kids). While I agree with being able to check the results with many modern calculators, my argument is that it is useful to know when the results have to be checked. For example: if you know that all of the points are less than 5 and you are adding 20 of them together, a result greater than 100 means you have to go back and check what was entered.
- cableshaft 5y agoYou don't group up the victory point chips in piles that each add up to 10 like I do? Heretic! (I agree with you, btw).