>> Unfortunately, in the UK it seems to currently be "trendy" to be stupid. 
>> It's decidedly uncool to know stuff, especially about mathematics and 
>> science. I wonder if there are countries where people actually take 
>> pride in mathematical skill?
> 
>   I think that the US is currently growing a generation of people who can't
> understand the basic concepts behind programming, and this might bite their
> economy in a few decades.
> 
>   You see, at some parts of the US there's this odd trend that students
> should not be taught basic math skills. Instead, they are taught some
> "intuitive" hand-waving which might or might not help them solve some
> mathematical problems via intuitive "deduction", but without really
> understanding the basic mechanics.

>   However, these people are taught to be lazy. They are basically said
> "if you can't calculate with some easy rules of thumb, just give up and
> use a calculator, nobody *really* needs to know how to multiply any two
> numbers".

Well, I suppose you could argue that, in the real world, if you want to 
do a nontrivial calculation and you actually need an exact answer, 
you'll use some sort of computation device.

Then again, how many people grow up to be carpenters? But they still 
teach woodwork??

>   The same is true for other mathematical operations, such as division
> and square root.

Out of curiosity... how the hell *do* you actually calculate the square 
root of something? I've always wondered.

[Of course, usually the number you're looking at will be a square 
number, and it's just a matter of guessing what it's the square of. But 
if you for some reason needed to approximate, say, the square root of 
500, where the hell do you start?]

>   They are missing the point. By teaching lazy rules of thumb, they are
> failing to teach a higher concept: Algorithmical thinking. You can't
> program a computer with just "rules of thumb".

Well, most people won't ever need to be computer programmers. It _is_ a 
minority occupation. Indeed, most professions don't really involve 
higher mathematics in any way.

But for those few that do... hmm, this could be a problem.

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