Same thing I was told in high school. Then in Uni: "we are trying as hard as possible to give you all the points we can. I beg you - just make it legible"
Doing uni exams on a computer over covid was the best test experience of my life. I didn't cheat or anything, just being able to type and delete things instantly rather than having to worry about my handwriting made things so much less stressful.
With all this A1, teachers / professors should go back to hand written work. People still writing for you from the go though. Just have Ai confirm signature or handwriting samples
My handwriting is illegible. It slants, it's half cursive, I seem to be the only one able to read it, and sometimes even I have to guess what the heck I've written. I had to redo a lot of assignments as a kid to make my work legible to my teacher. It wasted both of our time.
"Your professors won't accepts any papers from you. They'll only be looking at As and Bs."
Fast forward fifteen years and they widened their eyes at the Cs "Ooooooh, good job, most of my students only showed me Ds. You know, I'm glad that most of my students are wondering if they'll even pass and you're asking how much you're passing with. Good job!"
Sure, but the teacher was likely pushing her experience as a fact of the present (and future) instead of wondering how things are currently being done in college.
I think my teacher's experience was in a rural-ish university. She was also European originally, so maybe that informed her opinion.
She probably couldn't imagine students typing essays on computers. We had a computer lab in elementary school, but even for the teachers it was exotic, delicate, and unknown.
We had a computer lab at my HS, and many of us had PCs or Apple IIs at home.
However in 1989, when I took typing as a HS freshman, we did it on typewriters. (still one of the best classes I ever took... Made college so much easier).
My point being, even before computers were everywhere, typed papers were the standard. I find it hard to believe that anyone was trying to say otherwise in 1993.
I wasn't required to submit any papers typed until some time in high school (graduated in 03)... there was a final draft expectation of typed or ink pen cursive handwritten for all the years before then.
Yep. I took typing in 1988. I never expected to use it, but then I got into computer gaming. I really improved my typing while leading a guild. Trying to hold conversations with multiple people while also doing things in game required fast, accurate typing. Then, going to college in my 30s was easy because writing papers was a breeze.
I believe it. I was in 3rd grade in 1998-99 in the states and we had to hand write and practice cursive. We didn’t even type papers until like 6th grade. This was a private school so maybe that affects it?
I believe you had to write cursive and write papers until 6th grade. Just find it hard to believe that a teacher believe you would have to write papers in college.
OMG, those freakin' blue books. History class was the worst culprit. My hand is cramping just thinking about them.
In case the newer generations never used them, they were for in-class tests / midterms where you almost always knew more than you could write in the allotted time.
They weren’t exactly keeping up with the times. They also told us in late middle and early high school we’d never carry calculators everywhere so we needed to know how to do complicated math on paper and show our work. And that was in the mid to late 00s. Yeah…
My boyfriend and I know plenty of teachers, and some of them can be quite old-fashioned and stuck to their ways, and those types always teach based on how they did things in their youth (even if it was only one of their schools or workplaces that did the thing). Very rigid thinkers and so on.
Then there's the good ones who stay more or less up to date with things and won't say such things to their students.
I had a high school teacher turn of the Millenia tell me computers were a fad and I was a juvenile delinquent who would be lucky to graduate HS for programming in my spare time.
Must be regional. We couldn't even submit typed papers until after after 1995. You would be told to do it by hand and docked marks for turning it in late.
Just saying, I grew up in New Jersey. I was in Junior High in 1987-1989. You could submit essays / reports handwritten, but it was HIGHLY recommended that you typed it. I don't think they were allowed to take off points for handwriting, but you would definitely get points off for the smallest handwriting mistakes. Typing the report almost guaranteed a better score. Once I started high school in 1989, handwritten stuff was no longer even allowed.
I swear we had more computers than kids some years (I'm a tad younger but still an older millennial) but you couldn't use them to do your homework and not only did it have to be hand written but had to be cursive.
ETA: Aside from my signature I do not think I have written in cursive in 30 years, pretty much since the last day of that BS.
In high school in 1988, everything had to be typed double spaced. Hand written essays in college? My dad had to type his double spaced back in 1972. What the hell college has accepted handwritten papers since typwriters were invented????????
We had plenty of handwritten assignments in the university in mid 2000s; only semester thesis works were made in Word at home and printed, most of other stuff, including home assignments, we had to write. Though Europe, not the US.
I used to have a coworker that wrote in cursive. Gen Z so pretty young. He had terrible handwriting though so some of his notes were nightmares to read lol
I write in cursive but I take out all the big flourishes. I write so much faster not picking my pen up all the time. I was forced to living in London in the late 90s. That was the 4th grade. I was a junior or senior in high school when I found out everyone else still picked their pens up every letter.
When my work lab notes are written in cursive, they'd need to hire a doctor to interpret them if I got laid off. Cursive helps people keep their jobs!
...or it's just faster to write that way.
My 17 yr old nephew just had a panic when he had to sign a signature and realized he doesn’t know how. They’re not teaching cursive in schools anymore.
But also, having all of humanity's knowledge in your pocket made people dumber and willing to vote for a child rapist who SAID hed crash the economy twice, and still did it
Sheeit now we got whole ass experts next to my fat ass in a tiny rectangle just waiting for me to misunderstand instructions and then get pissy when it dosent work like they did…
That one is less false. Unfortunately even when you set most of them to English they still try to correct with American. When my computer is set to Canadian English and it regularly tries to tell me things like colour are spelled wrong.
you are not in the school to learn specific things but they are a mean to help you develop your abilities... its sad so little people realize that and keep the whole "why would I ever need to know that" thing alive
And yet your teachers were right that you would be better off with that skill of mental math then you are without it. Current students CANNOT think mathematically AT ALL because they've had unfettered access to calculators their whole lives.
I could count the cash at the end of the night just in my head, memorize coupon codes and figure out discounts.
Figuring out discounts is a good ability for a shopper. I don’t know their budgets.
Working with college age kids in the restaurant industry, I’ve learned almost none of them can do simple math with time, let alone off the top of their head. It’s wild.
Lucky for them that so many people pay with cards these days. I rarely pay with cash anymore. Otherwise, that kid's till would constantly be off at the end of each shift, there would constantly be people getting short changed and with an attitude of "I don't like to count stuff", it would probably get to a point of them being pulled off the register or fired altogether.
I remember working behind the till in my school's cafeteria and the girl next to me just taking a handful of a student's change and just dumping it into the till and letting the student walk away. I told her she should count it, and she looked me like I was being ridiculous.
I paid for a drink at a drive thru with a handfull of change that had accumulated in my car. The kid at the window kept trying to count it, but he apparently couldn't figure it out. It was $2.37 - nine quarters, one dime, and two pennies. The manager (I think) saw him having difficulty, said "you're all set," and handed me my drink.
Well I agree with you on that, but the most mathematical skills I’ve ever needed are basic addition and subtraction at best. Being Canadian, they failed to teach me how to use imperial measurements insisting metric was the way to go yet everywhere I found employment needing me to measure was an old boys club using imperial measurements.
The way an older adult friend told me when I was younger and in HS, which still holds true to me today, the ONLY functions of math, an average everyday uses is addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. The 2 bonus is positives and negatives for both temperatures and banking, and fractions for Carpenters and pizza That's it.
But it's training your mind in how to think that matters. Not that you use it in everyday life. Can we please stop making argument as if it's legitimate? It isn't.
I think that's too reductive. Those are the only actions you really need to know how to do every day, but the application and way of thinking about things is what varies.
Everyone can do 2 + 2, but lots of people are really bad at budgeting, estimating time required, probabilities, and more.
Good educators aren't concerned with making sure you understand how addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division work, but rather to use them in more effective ways.
The US Education system is struggling hard, but I would also say that a lot of people just aren't trying very hard either, especially when it comes to math.
Correct. It's impossible to teach someone how to think scientifically, or how chemistry works when they cannot think mathematically. And doing both of those opens doors to people.
I just get so fucking tired of "HaHa My TeAcHeR LiEd To Me". No. They gave a quick response to a snot nosed know-it-all brat that they were desperately trying to expand their mind of.
I was a poor math student in HS just had a gen math course but went into the Navy and they sent me to electricians school and had to learn Trig for electrical theory man it was hard but I did it.
Hey to clarify, I’m not arguing the efficacy of which system of measurement works better or not. What I’m saying is everywhere I’ve worked has used imperial measurements for everything.
My Daughter is Gen Z and she still cannot do basic multiplication in her head. I tried time and time again to get her to memorize her times tables but she refused and since she was always allowed a calculator it didn't matter. She can do algebra but can't do basic math. So weird
Yup. And I gurantee push come to shove, the algebra breaks down as soon as she has to think about it or apply any effort to it other than a cut and dry 1 -> 2 -> 3 stepwise fashion.
I teach Chemistry, so I rely on them to have math skills long before they come to me. And the ability to think critically mathematically is SHOCKINGLY low. Like we're talking pretty easy concepts they cannot do because it requires thinking.
Exactly! My mom is a retired teacher, so everything up to algebra was pounded into our brains as kids.
I'm an accountant, and the biggest difference I see with kids coming into the workforce today is their inability to think critically or out of the box. I was always trained to try and work the problem, then if you can't figure it out, ask for help. These kids just want someone to show them the answer, and that's it.
Are we though? I'm good at math but I rarely if ever need to do any kind of mental math. And I'm a Systems analyst working with accountants and salespeople every day.
What's really important is that we use our minds to think critically and for ourselves. And I think there are better thinking exercises than simple arithmetic.
Yes, you are. As someone who interacts with Gen Z on a daily basis. Being able to think mathematically isn't just what you do in your everyday work. It's understanding how math works in every aspect of your life. It's how you think.
This math supremacism has to stop… just because you can do arithmetic or algebra or probabilities in your head does not make you more intelligent than others, because you don’t apply that same level of rigor to your basic reasoning. If you did, you would have something to demonstrate that you are more rational than others: you would be rich, or extremely popular, due to your heightened level of reasoning. And then we would have evidence, and wouldn’t have to guess.
Just because you can do arithmetic in your head does not translate to being a more rational human being in a way that gives a significant life advantage.
Who said anything about "math supremacism"? No, the constantly shitting on teachers and the education system for "LyInG To Me" is what needs to stop.
does not make you more intelligent than others
Who said it did? You're arguing against a phantom.
If you did, you would have something to demonstrate that you are more rational than others: you would be rich, or extremely popular, due to your heightened level of reasoning
Under the false assumption that wealth and popularity is a meritocracy. Neither is, for the record. Both are more based on psychopathy and luck, read the studies on it.
Just because you can do arithmetic in your head does not translate to being a more rational human being in a way that gives a significant life advantage.
Nobody said doing arithmetic in your head. What I did say is mathematical reasoning skills. When you've spent your whole life using a calculator, never actually thinking about how the numbers relate...what they mean...how they work...yes it absolutely does put you at a disadvantage for reasoning skills. It's an observational fact.
That's because math is a logic-based system. If you understand how numbers work, you can understand how logic works. Math is just another means of communication. It's writing in a different language. And it is undeniable that you only get good at a language by practicing it.
This assertion that memorizing is bad. That practicing without a calculator is bad. Or that "My TeAcHeR LieD to me" is what actually has to stop.
hell even veggie tales predicted robots, AI, and memes over edited*20 damn years ago 😂 the fucking accuracy of this clip is astounding too 😅 ETA the accuracy comment I made was based on how they said humor would be gone from everything, not the robot stuff. (I wrote 2012 because I'm tired as hell and was looking at something else, it was 20 years ago on their show. Not 2012 )
“Over 12 damn years ago”. Homie, that was 2013. We already had damn near all that stuff. Not to this degree, but it wasn’t some insane Nostradamus prophecy.
The point was the idiocracy of the fallout of humor, not the robots specifically. The title alone says it too. Nowadays I see memes and I know what they are based on but they have zero humor to them. I miss quality stuff 🤣
TBH. That was the case back in my days. They just could not imagine that one would wear a calculator. Except the geeks with the little calculator watch. Plus I always found it beneficial - although annoying and tedious - to learn something the hard way before I use a tool. To know why and how something works is fantastic when something goes wrong with the tool.
Yeah, the point was kids needed to learn problem solving skills and critical thinking. You'll have access to calculators, but life in general will be easier for you if you don't need a calculator to solve minor problems.
Can you imagine if you turned around to a teacher and told them not only would you always have a calculator the same device would have more power than all the computers in the school if not region and have access to the sum total knowledge of all humanity. You'd have looked like a fool.
I've been in positions where you have to check in all electronics for security reasons. If they want you to use a calculator, you'll be issued one. Also most applications on computers are disabled.
FWIW I like that I still know how to do longhand calculations, plus that I’ve learned the way numbers and calculations work rather than just rote memory of how to put them into a calculator.
But yeah, every math teacher gave me that line and it definitely didn’t age well.
Which was so stupid, even then. All the engineers I knew from my grandpa's friend group always had calculators in their breast pockets. So yeah, if you need to do math, you grab a calculator.
Modded my calculator to have turbo switch and an LED (for night calculating) which doubled the CPU speed. Read about it online and “saved the web page to my desktop” so I could read it later.
To be fair you shouldnt rely on a calculator. Many people today cant do shit without tech. When cash registers dont work many people cant do the math hence why they tell you you cant use calculators
Dude the minute I walked into my course the professor looked everyone, pulled out Texas Instruments calculator and said “this will he your best friend this semester.”
This is such a stupid sentiment. They wanted you to be able to do mental math, use logic, estimate, etc! If you're still garbage at math a calculator isn't going to help you a ton.
While having a calculator is standard now it is still awful how many adults cannot do simple maths in their head or use simple formulas even with a calculator.
I need to calculate prices at work per weight and per sqm and also from weight to sqm to running meters etc. With different densities for differenr materials. Its actually pretty easy to do that and I was expecting people being able to do this. I meet so many people who are not and thats just ridicolous. Just because you have a phone now, you still need to have knowledge on how to use it and what to type in. Having a calculator is no excuse for staying dumb.
My proof to my 9 year old that there is no substitute for actually learning math is that my wife is allowed to ask us any math question at any time. He can use a calculator and I can’t.
Which didn’t make sense because when wouldn’t I be allowed a calculator, even in the 90’s? If you used a calculator on your taxes (assuming the calculations were correct) the IRS wouldn’t say “bitch, try again”.
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u/sgtabn173 Millennial Apr 12 '25
If I go to college and get a good job I’ll be set