The abuse of technology is evident in some of the examples cited above. Fingers-on-the-buttons has now replaced engagement-of-the-brain with in- creasing frequency. I should also call attention to the insistence in educa- tional documents that students in K-4 be allowed to have access at all times to the calculator ([MAF], ; [N1], ; [N5], ; [UN]). In theory, giving children an extra tool in the form of a calculator can do nothing but “empower” them mathematically, to use a term that is popular these days, but what if the theory is not born out by hard facts? In anecdote after anec- dote, one hears horror stories of the.
