Tristan Stockford

11/17/2016
Math Journal Entry
Those Cheating Kids & Their Calculators
Dear Mr./Mrs. ________,
Thank you for writing to me about your concerns regarding calculator use in the
classroom. I think it important to note that you are not alone in feeling that calculators are not
necessary to math education, and that they only allow students to cheat on their assignments.
While calculators do save students time in solving rote math computations, they do not in fact
do the math for the student. The calculators (as of current) are not capable of understanding
math problems, and it will always be the responsibility of the human operator to interpret and
use the calculators. On another note, it is into an increasingly technologically dependant world
that we send our students into after they graduate, and as such we find it important that we not
only allow them to use calculators here in school, but rather that we also teach them about
these and other similar technologies so that they may be better prepared for life after school.
I do not mean to criticize your concerns, as I think they are important and felt by the
majority. There are many other concerns felt by many parents, staff, and students alike
regarding calculators and other technologies that are making their ways into the classroom, and
there have been studies done to address these issues.
Here is one such study. (https://education.ti.com/sites/US/downloads/pdf/therole.pdf)
These studies have shown that, when used properly, calculators can be an invaluable
tool to education. They can save students time so (so that the class can really get at the heart of
the problem), they prepare students for what awaits them later in life, and they allow students to
answer higher level of thinking questions regarding the problems at hand. I would recommend
reading the section of the article titled Dispelling the Myths for more information. Thanks again
for writing to me, and please continue to do so in future if you have more concerns you would
like me to address.
Tristan Stockford