> Most important, they say, calculators free students from the drudgery of ``paper and pencil'' math, so they can spend more time solving problems. That would

> Most important, they say, calculators free students from the drudgery of ``paper and pencil'' math, so they can spend more time solving problems. That would be nice, but it doesn't happen in practice. I teach in the first year of the university in Argentina. In the midterm we have 3 normal algebra exercises and one world problem. I'd like to add more world problema, but the students are very afraid of the world problem. [1] Like x+y=10, x-y=6, with 3 variables and 3 equations so they have to use the Gauss method.