This generation of kids...

[V.C. Brunswick]

I read somewhere that some hospitals actually had to have penmanship seminars for their doctors. And it does surprise me that in the age of email and Windows Office that many prescriptions are still handwritten.

 

[jamespowers]

I read somewhere that some hospitals actually had to have penmanship seminars for their doctors. And it does surprise me that in the age of email and Windows Office that many prescriptions are still handwritten.

Well, mine never are. The doctor has the computer print out mine or just sends a request straight ot the pharmacy.

 

[shazzabanazza]

I do the same, specially in texts for myself... As a left-handed, my caligraphy is terrible, even writing slow with fountain pens. But it's a unique way to put clearly the ideas on paper for developement.



This electronic world is strange. I only see young people using electronic calculators even for very simples operations. People forgot how to understand the mathematics, to understand the algorithms. If anybody want to scare a teenager, just show a table of logarithms - and ask to find with it the square root of 353434 in 4 minutes.

Calculators should not be allowed at school! Kids should be taught to do standard arithmatic without the help of calculators.

Sheeplady Letters seem to be a thing of the past now. One cant beat recieving a handwritten letter of thanks or even just a note to say "hi"

 

[Derek WC]

"Calculators should not be allowed at school! Kids should be taught to do standard arithmatic without the help of calculators."

You sting me with your words!

 

[jamespowers]

"Calculators should not be allowed at school! Kids should be taught to do standard arithmatic without the help of calculators."

You sting me with your words!

:rofl:

 

[LizzieMaine]

Calculators aren't always to blame. I started school before they existed, never was allowed to use them in class once they were invented, and can't do math to save my life. I'm pretty good at guessing, and that's about it.

 

[John in Covina]

Calculators should not be allowed at school! Kids should be taught to do standard arithmatic without the help of calculators.

I think that a personal calculator hit the scene when I was in junior high. Back then they were so expensive few kids would have one unless their parents were really rich. I high school they started to become more affordable but you were not allowed to use them in class or on tests. However, you could use a slide rule on some tests and we were taught to use them in trigonometry. i know that there are highly programable calculators that are barred from many exams.

i have seen people that can't make change if the cash register isn't working.

 

[Cobden]

I can only speak from the British experience, but I would imagine it's the same across the water when I say that calculators are NOT used for basic arithmetic - they come into use when you get onto trigonometry and that sort of thing.

I think the problem is more (and I speak from experience here) that the pure is taught after the basic - naturally, I should add - and thus the basic gets forgotten. I couldn't tell you what 6 times 8 was, but I can tell that (3+2y)^4 expands to 16y^4+96y^3+216y^2+216y+81....

 

[sheeplady]

Sheeplady Letters seem to be a thing of the past now. One cant beat recieving a handwritten letter of thanks or even just a note to say "hi"

But they really shouldn't be things of the past. Thank you's (and I am going to sound really old-fashioned here) are always meant to be handwritten. Quite frankly I think that if someone can't write out thank you's by hand for an event (barring some extreme circumstances such as a disability), they shouldn't have the event or invite anyone or at least should not accept gifts. For instance, if a person doesn't want to write out 200 thank you's for their wedding, then they shouldn't invite that many guests or they should have a courthouse wedding. Although one shouldn't expect gifts for a wedding, if one is received and accepted, a written thank you is required.

I'm not always the best about written thank you's for small gifts (I have gotten better in the last year, New Years resolution). But for major events or gifts I have always sent a handwritten thank you. It's not that hard to write 3-4 nice sentences about the gift and/or what the person means to you, stick a stamp on it and drop it in the post.

 

[shazzabanazza]

"Calculators should not be allowed at school! Kids should be taught to do standard arithmatic without the help of calculators."

You sting me with your words!

:lol: Im sorry to hear that!

 

[shazzabanazza]

But they really shouldn't be things of the past. Thank you's (and I am going to sound really old-fashioned here) are always meant to be handwritten. Quite frankly I think that if someone can't write out thank you's by hand for an event (barring some extreme circumstances such as a disability), they shouldn't have the event or invite anyone or at least should not accept gifts. For instance, if a person doesn't want to write out 200 thank you's for their wedding, then they shouldn't invite that many guests or they should have a courthouse wedding. Although one shouldn't expect gifts for a wedding, if one is received and accepted, a written thank you is required.

I'm not always the best about written thank you's for small gifts (I have gotten better in the last year, New Years resolution). But for major events or gifts I have always sent a handwritten thank you. It's not that hard to write 3-4 nice sentences about the gift and/or what the person means to you, stick a stamp on it and drop it in the post.

Totally agree with you, they should NOT be things of the past. I guess technology has made people lazy in a sence...

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Math is my mortal enemy. I'm shocked because I'm great with dates. But I guarantee you if you asked me how many years after the Civil War ended, to when WWI began, I'd have to use my fingers.

 

[John in Covina]

Did anyone here learn the addition table and the times table by rote? I and those at Deauville Gardens Elementary learned the basics of math by repetition and memorization. When doing multiplication I hear that portion of the times table being chanted in my head and I see the table on a blackboard.

 

[shazzabanazza]

Did anyone here learn the addition table and the times table by rote? I and those at Deauville Gardens Elementary learned the basics of math by repetition and memorization. When doing multiplication I here that portion of the times table being chanted in my head and I see the table on a blackboard.

Thats how I learnt em'

 

[Puzzicato]

I don't know what an addition table is, but I did learn the times table by rote - so after 12 x 12 I am stumped.

 

[Wesley Milton Dagwell III]

If the skill or the knowledge are not applicable to our lives - there is little necessity to learn them and it is no longer a bad thing if we don't. Think on how many arts and crafts today were vital skills yesterday.

Things like penmanship and mental mathematical ability could be considered amusing hobbies to our descendants. It doesn't mean that they will be stupid.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Did anyone here learn the addition table and the times table by rote? I and those at Deauville Gardens Elementary learned the basics of math by repetition and memorization. When doing multiplication I hear that portion of the times table being chanted in my head and I see the table on a blackboard.

That's the way we learned to multiply -- and multiplication is one of the few math skills I still have. I was fine with math until the fourth grade, but long division lost me, and i never recovered. Had two years of algebra in high school, and have had absolutely no earthly use for it in the thirty-odd years since, so I've completely forgotten how to do it.

I can't do any math in my head, though, not even simple addition and subtraction. I have to write it out with pencil and paper.

 

[scottyrocks]

Thank you notes should be hand written. Even if the message feels canned, as in you know the 13 year old bar-mitzvah boy had to write 200 of them with his mother standing over him, it still looks more personal when it is hand written.

 

[John in Covina]

If the skill or the knowledge are not applicable to our lives - there is little necessity to learn them and it is no longer a bad thing if we don't. Think on how many arts and crafts today were vital skills yesterday.

Things like penmanship and mental mathematical ability could be considered amusing hobbies to our descendants. It doesn't mean that they will be stupid.

One does not feel stupid until one needs the skill to survive or get ahead. When skills such as math are held as a skill not needed one becomes hostage to those that do have the skills. Imagine having to have others balance ones check book or help with creating a household budget.

Knowing a skill does not hamper one in life and believing that knowledge is a waste of time makes for a smaller existence by limiting one's own horizons...

 

[John in Covina]

I can't do any math in my head, though, not even simple addition and subtraction. I have to write it out with pencil and paper.

I am better when I write math out on paper. I can add and subtract in my head out to about 4 places but division and multiplication of 3 places or more needs paper.

I find that I can't be spelled to, such as if someone spells out a word in conversation so a child nearby doesn't know it. If it is not written I can't retain the letters and see the word in my mind by hearing it spelled, I get lost about 4 to 6 letters in.