Righting and Rithmetic

Technology is having a tremendous impact upon education today.  Many students today have their own computers, smart phones and scientific calculators.  Word processing and keyboarding is taught in most schools.  Internet access in classrooms is common.  Typewriters, encyclopedias, slide rules, overhead projectors, blackboards and many other tools are becoming ancient history.  But the biggest challenge for educators is not just  learning to use these new tools, but deciding what topics no longer need to be taught.  For example, in mathematics, how much time should be devoted to teaching fractions, especially arithmetic operations with them?  Where are they used today?  When is the last time you had to divide two fractions?  What about long division?  Teachers used to spend weeks trying to teach this process and once again I ask, where is it needed today?  And if it is needed who doesn't just reach for a calculator to do the division.  Now some things are obvious.  Decades ago we stopped teaching using logs to do calculations and we eliminated slide rules.  Do you even know what a slide rule is?  This took about a month out of an algebra course.  
     But here is an even tougher question.  How much time should schools devote to teaching basic arithmetic - number facts and operations?  Now I know that there are still very many uses for doing calculations, but how often do you reach for your calculator rather than doing the arithmetic in your head or on paper?   And if you are any kind of sales clerk, your cash register will do it all for you - and much faster and accurately.  But if you don't teach it you are condemned by much of the public for not teaching basics.  And some would argue what will you do if the power goes out and you can't use your calculator  ... or maybe we should add if the sun doesn't shine and you can't use your solar powered calculator. Yes, I have actually heard such comments. So are you beginning to see the dilemma that educators are facing today?  
     Now let me add some more.  Should we quit teaching cursive?  After all, who writes using cursive anymore?  We've gotten rid of typewriters.  I do have an old one but can't get ribbons for it even if I wanted to use it.  We've replaced them with computers and word processors and they are so much more convenient and efficient to use.  But then if you don't teach cursive, how will folks be able to sign their checks?  Of course a growing feature of the electronic age doesn't require checks anymore - transactions can be done through your computer or smart phone.  And if you don't teach cursive, how will you be able to read the writings of our grandparents or historical documents?  And how important is that?  Oh yes, and while we are at it, how much time should be spent teaching spelling?  How many of us now rely on spell checkers?  
     Now I don't have the answers, especially as technology explodes.  My intent is just to raise some questions and share some of the practical curricular problems that educators are facing today.  And maybe there is little that we will agree about on this topic ... except maybe the elimination of typewriters ... and of course the slide rule.  (This blog was written on my computer, sent through the internet and spell checked, hopefully.)