Math and calculators

So, for my last post I decided to take a poll on Facebook. It was "How many people hate doing math without a calculator?" I got a good response: 10 people said they hate it, 1 person said depends on the math, and 1 said they hate when you have to use a calculator. One response was from a math teacher she said "I'm a math teacher and i always double check my work with a calculator better safe than sorry" That is a very valid point. It's a shame no a days that so many people rely on technology for answers. I myself and victim to that, I always use a calculator to do, even the simplest, math. At work I am a head cashier and we have to what they call price accuracy.  We used to have to fix meat products which are by pound. I would always get the calculator because they idea of multiplying a problem such as 4.13pounds times 3.59, but since I started taking Math 107 I wanted to try and do it on my own. Ever since I started doing it I kept doing it. It was so much easier to be able to just walk over to the cash register do the math, and fix the problem, then trying to track down a calculator. I will admit there is some math that requires a calculator, but then again how did they do math back when there wasn't any technology. The idea of trying to divide 2.3786 into 3,000,500,900.87996 would be scary without a calculator. I wish that technology didn't provide such a crutch to people around the world. If you think about kids today would be outside all the time if it wasn't for technology. It is so much easier for a parent to put their child in front of a t.v. instead of taking them outside. I am glad that we got the chance to go through a math class without a calculator. In all my years of school I remember always having a calculator during class, math, and tests. I always have an IEP that says I can have access to a calculator. It was great seeing short cuts to understanding and completing math problems. When we were told we were doing decimals and fractions without a calculator I nearly had a panic attack. It actually wasn't that bad though, I never really gave it a chance. I must say that this class has been an eye opener for me and I look forward to continuing part 2 of this class.