Unscientific Poll: Calculators Subtract From Thinking Skills

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

Recently we asked how you feel about calculators in school. We heard from about thirty people in twelve countries, including a large number of Chinese.

Turbo Zhang writes: "My brain is rusting. Why? Because I use calculators everywhere, on my mobile phone, on my computer, etc. New technology makes us use everything except our brain."

Joony Zhu says calculators can provide us with an answer, but we may not understand it completely. And a student at an architectural and engineering college in China, Zhao Jing-tao, calls using a calculator "a kind of laziness."

Critics of using calculators in school, at least until high school or university, outnumbered supporters two to one.

Khaled Hamza in Cairo says "calculators affect badly on the thinking ways of students." Jose Gudino from Mexico City says this is because "you don't need to make an effort to get a result."

Hemin, a math teacher in Kurdistan-Iraq, says good math skills help in life. So he believes in solving problems with a pencil until high school.

Randy Bin Lin, a Ph.D. candidate from China at Baylor College of Medicine in Texas, writes: "You should work out problems with some kind of pain without computers. Then you may come to appreciate the power of these sophisticated machines."

Abbas from Iran, now living in Sweden, says it is good to use your brain because calculators are not always available. "Last week I met a university student who could not subtract six from forty and used a calculator," says Abbas.

But He Wenbo from China says calculators reduce careless mistakes. And Yang Linwei, an eleventh grader from China, says: "When I was young we couldn't use calculators. But when I entered high school we have to solve a lot of math problems. We have to use a calculator. It makes my homework easier."

From Burkina Faso, Compaore Tewende Michel writes: "I can say that the handheld calculator has been important in my studies and even in my life."

And Barnabas Nyaaba in Ghana advises that "as we enjoy the use of calculators, let's be careful so that it does not have any bad effects on us."

Finally, Thomas, a student in China, says he likes using electronic calculators in school. But he wanted to tell us about what he called a special calculator which he does not know how to use. He even sent us a picture of this special -- and, in fact, ancient -- calculator. In English we call it an abacus.

And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Steve Ember.

不科学的民意测验: 计算器降低思维能力

这里是VOA特别英语教育报道。

最近，我们问你对计算器在学校有怎样的感受。我们收到了来自12个国家约30人的回音，其中包括大批的中国人。

Turbo张写道：“我的大脑在生锈。为什么呢？因为我使用计算器无处不在，我的移动电话，我的电脑等。新技术使我们使用一切，除了我们的大脑。”

Joony朱说：计算器，可提供我们一个答案，但我们可能不完全明白它。在中国建筑设计和工程学院的一名学生赵京涛称用计算器“是一种懒惰” 。

在学校至少直到高中或大学对于使用计算器，批评者人数超过支持者，为2:1。

哈立德•哈姆扎在开罗说：“计算器对学生的思维方式有消极的影响。”来自墨西哥城的Joze Gudino说：这是因为“你并不需要作出努力得到的结果。”

赫茗，伊拉克•库尔德斯坦的一名数学老师，说好的数学能力，帮助生活。因此他相信用一支铅笔解决问题一直到中学。

来自中国兰迪林斌，在克萨斯州贝勒医学院的博士生，这样写道：你应该通过某种努力而不是用计算机来算出问题。然后你才可能达到理解精密仪器的能力。

现住在瑞典的伊朗人阿巴斯说，多使用你的大脑是有益的，因为计算器并非总是可用的。“上周我遇见一个不会算40 减去6 并且在使用计算器的大学生，”阿巴斯说。

但来自中国的贺文博说，计算器可减少不小心的错误。来自中国十一年级的学生杨林伟说：“我年轻的时候，我们不能使用计算器。但当我上了高中我们必须解决很多问题。我们不得不使用一个计算器。它使我的功课比较容易。”

从布基纳法索的Compaore Tewende米歇尔写： 我能说手提式的计算器在我的研究过程中和甚至在我的生活过程中已经很重要。

巴纳巴斯Nyaba在加纳建议"我们享有计算器的便利时，让我们小心点以避免它对我们的消极影响"。

最后，在中国的一名学生托马斯，说他喜欢在学校使用电子计算器。但是他想要把他所谓的他不知道怎样使用的一个特别的计算器告诉我们。他寄给我们这一特别计算器的照片——其实是古董计算器。在英语里我们叫它为一个算盘。

以上VOA特别英语教育报道，由南希·斯坦芭撰稿。我是史蒂夫·安贝。