> imagine how radically math class must have changed when calculators became widely affordable I was there. We had been given slide rules, and a decent chunk o

> imagine how radically math class must have changed when calculators became widely affordable I was there. We had been given slide rules, and a decent chunk of my 11-yr-old maths classes were devoted to teaching us how to use them. Calculators were banned because they "didn't teach us anything" (but somehow slide rules did? It didn't make any sense at the time either). Over the course of the next few years, calculators became more acceptable, and by my 18-yr-old Maths A-level class, we were being advised on which scientific calculators to buy. It's an interesting analogy, as TFA says.