The spirit of the article is compatible with explaining the virtues of general purpose computing. There are plenty of people who have drawn a distinction betwe

The spirit of the article is compatible with explaining the virtues of general purpose computing. There are plenty of people who have drawn a distinction between devices that can be programmed and which encourage experimentation and creation as opposed to devices built for consuming or figuring out how to get a result within prescribed parameters. However, it cannot be ignored that Texas Instruments graphing calculators are not great examples of general purpose computers. To the contrary, they have become a signature example of rot within education. Students who would be sufficiently inspired to program a graphing calculator would also be sufficiently inspired to program on a Raspberry Pi which is orders of magnitude more capable, and at least $65 cheaper. The TI-84 is BAD at its core functionality. It performs badly when it comes to acting as a mathematical tool, or as a preview of what tools students might ever potentially use professionally or in higher level math courses. Second, it is a bad general purpose computer. And finally, because it is terribly over-priced, it is unnecessary burden on high school students, at a price that is only supported by cooperation from testing agencies that acts counter to the interests of students and counter to education in general. Is a TI graphing calculator a cute device, and does it inspire fetishization and nostalgia? Sure, why not. However, it is not acceptable that high school students in 2013 are compelled to buy technological relics that are not relevant to their education.