Armchair Pundits

How I use calculus in everyday life

I really need to stop listening to liberal talk radio. Hugh is on vacation and someone was filling in for him. I took the opportunity to listen to what the loyal opposition was saying. I shouldn’t do it though. My ride home is supposed to give me some decompression time which allows me to make the leap from Mr. Squirrel, the sophisticated businessman, to Daddy, the human jungle gym. Instead when I listen to liberal talk radio I end up frustrated and baffled. On the bright side, I do usually get some ideas for things to write about.

Take last night, for example. Wendy Wilde was apparently discussing schools misusing education dollars with one of her callers. You’ll forgive me, but I tuned in half-way through the conversation. Anyway, this caller was complaining about how some school has giving laptop computers to the seventh and eighth grade students and how this showed the school was mishandling its money. Now, to be fair, Wendy correctly pointed out that the computers were part of a grant from Apple Computers and that the school was probably paying in the neighborhood of a hundred dollars for the computers, which was a good deal. The caller disagreed and stated that even the hundred dollars could have been better used elsewhere. Of course, the caller was later ridiculed as being anti-technology and it was suggested that he probably would have been against the purchase of calculators years ago, which I thought was a bit mean spirited.

Once again, the left does not understand the problem. The problem is not mismanagement of funds, although some schools may be doing that. The problem is that in too many schools the education system is wasting the student’s time and not teaching that student the basic fundamentals that will be needed to advance through the educational system and through life.

At one point, Ms. Wilde gave the tired old argument that the students need these computers in junior high in order to be able to compete with the rest of the world when they finish school. I hate to shatter her little world, but computers in junior high will not help our students compete. Even if a student gets to have a laptop computer in junior high, their career options upon graduating from high school will still involve wearing a hair-net and being proficient in the use of a spatula. What our students really need is to be educated in such a way that they will learn to think. Their minds, not their computer skills, need to be developed to enable them to proceed further in the educational arena.

What too many people forget is that a computer is just a tool and that an idiot who knows how to use a computer is still an idiot.

I remember how I was taught mathematics. In the earlier grades, we were not allowed to use calculators. After all, a calculator only provides you with the right answer. It doesn’t teach you how to get that right answer. Then, after having learned the fundamentals of mathematics, we were allowed to use calculators as we were taught more advanced mathematics. Finally, as I studied calculus and some of the higher levels of mathematics using a calculator was no longer an issue, because in order to properly use a calculator, you had to have the knowledge to correctly enter the problem. The calculator was no longer a crutch that gave you the right answer. Instead, after years of learning mathematics, the calculator became a tool that assisted me in my calculations.

I am not saying that computers should not be used in schools or that students should not be taught how to use computers. What I am saying is that computers should not be used or taught at the expense of the science, math, literature, history, and other fundamental topics. Students need a solid educational foundation that will enable them to successfully and productively use tools, such as computers, that will help them to advance. Without this foundation, students will end up only using their computers to play Wolfenstein or HALO.

Now these educational fundamentals may not always be exciting. But, schools need to stop trying to entertain the students and start educating them. That, however, is another topic for another time.

When I was back in school, I can remember kids saying, “why do I have to learn this stuff. I’ll never use it in real life.” Now, I guess it is true that my current employment does not require me to solve quadratic equations or determine the area under a curve. My job does, however, require that I think. So, while I may not be using the exact subjects that I learned in school in the real world, I am using the skills that I learned and the work ethic that I developed in school.

Having the proper technology for our children is important. But what is more important is that we must teach our children to think. Because, in the words of Descartes, “Cogito ergo sum.” “I think, therefore I am.”

posted by Squirrel @ 9:38 PM