I added a calculator to the arsenal of tools and used it to help me conquer statistics and trigonometry. This will help me in the future to open up my own business. .
The key word here is up-to-date. History shows us that the older generations did not need computers, for one, because they had not been invented yet. More importantly though they were already using the most advanced technologies that were available at that time such as up-to-date textbooks and in my case calculators. Just as I had incorporated the use of calculators in my studies so has the younger generation incorporated the use of computers. My nieces are using these tools and adding interactive computer software such as Disney's Math Quest with Aladdin. Where they go from here, one can only speculate. For my children it will probably be the same and for my grandchildren I can only imagine.
The point is that each generation is using the tools available at that time to help them learn. With each new generation the level and pace of education increases. My oldest niece Ashlee is now learning algebra in the sixth grade, whereas I did not learn it until the eighth grade, and my parents did not learn until perhaps high school. Now I am not saying that today's kids are smarter than yesterdays, only that they are learning to use the necessary tools they need to survive in their future and omitting those that no longer apply.
Stephen Talbott, author of The Future Does Not Compute, states, "The most critical element in the classroom is the immediate presence and vision of the teacher, his ability to inspire, his devotion to truth and reverence for beauty, his moral dignity--all of which the child observes and absorbs in a way impossible through electronic correspondence."" Although his illusion of the inspiring and moral teacher is a bit unrealistic, I agree that the teacher is the most important element in the education of a child.
