Use of Calculators

According to an article that I read on Educationnext.org, studies are proving more and more that over the years the United States is dropping in its National rank for mathematics education. In 1995 the Third International Mathematics and Science Study, a math proficiency exam, showed that among 8th grade students the US was 28 out of 41 counties and among 12th grade students we were at an astonishingly low of 18 out of 21 countries. For a country that is suppose to be a super power how is it that our education system is starting to fail?

"In 1989 the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) published its Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics–an extensive set of mathematics standards for grades K-12 which de-emphasized memorization of number facts, the learning of proofs, and algebraic skills, but encouraged the use of calculators and “discovery learning."" 

This caused the government to grant money to the development of new textbooks and their distribution. Which is a good thing right? NO not necessarily. These textbooks were more focused on children using calculators to solve simple problems for their academic level. If are children are suppose to be efficient then why are we teaching them to be reliant on mechanical instruments? I went through elementary school from 2000-2006 and the use of calculators was mostly in and out depending on the teacher. The us of the calculator was not really constant until I hit middle school, which is where i feel the downfall in my math competency went down the drain. It was so much easier to just type problems into the calculator than to have to figure them out in my head or long hand. 


http://educationnext.org/anamazeingapproachtomath/