Calculators and the Mathematics Curriculum

While the computer revolution has been making headlines, another much quieter revolution has taken place—in the way people in our society do arithmetic. With electronic calculators selling for less than $5, most people now use them to do such everyday computations as balancing a checkbook or determining how large a refund is due them at income-tax time. This revolution will and should have more of an impact than computers on the types of things we teach in the elementary school mathematics classroom. The abundance of cheap electronic calculators and the presence of sophisticated cash registers in virtually all retail outlets have nearly eliminated the need for pencil-and-paper computations, both at home and in the workplace.