I have to disagree how using GPS on phones has made map reading skills extinct. How many of us could really read a map? When I was younger and wanted to find a place, I didn’t get out my map. I’d call and have someone give me step by step directions that would lead me right to their front door.
Who was ever able to look at a map and figure out the exits, indicators and tiny roads? Plus, you can’t use it while you’re driving, so at best you could figure it out before you left, write down each move and hold it in front of you while steering; or pull off to the side of the road to check the next step after you completed each turn.
A GPS is like a calculator was in my day. I haven’t picked up a pencil and done any math since high school. I did help my daughters with math in elementary school, but even they often had the option of using a calculator.
No time in my adult life have I ever wished I was better at doing math long hand. I did take a lot of math in high school; all the way up to pre-calculus and calculus. I have no memory of any of it, nor was I particularly good at it. My teacher graded each line of the problem, so even when the answer wrong, if you had the right idea, you got points.
I only took advanced math because the teacher took those classes on hikes to the ocean. My high school math teacher was a genius; both in reality and for figuring out how to get a bunch of kids who disliked math to take it anyway.
However, when I got to college and had to take some sort of math class for credits I took Algebra 101. After all that difficult high school math, I was finally a wiz at story problems. Of course, that was then. When my daughters brought story problems home, frustrated because they just didn’t get it, I was hard pressed to help them.
My high school math teacher could not only do calculations in his head, he could also use an abacus (the abacus, also called a counting frame, is a calculating tool that was in use centuries before the adoption of the written modern numeral system and is still widely used by merchants, traders and clerks in Asia, Africa, and elsewhere).
Just think, if the abacus was used before the written numeral system, what did the parents of the kids who started using written numbers think? “Kids these days! They’ll totally forget how to use an abacus with all this modern number writing nonsense.”
My biggest concern about kids and modern technology is they don’t know how to use a dictionary. But I have to admit, I don’t even use a dictionary anymore. I do my writing on a computer and with a few short clicks, can find the spelling, definition and pronunciation of any word.
However, dictionaries don’t crash, abacuses don’t run out of batteries and maps don’t lose satellite connection. Although, I’ve never heard of anyone not being able to refold their smart phone properly after using it navigate.
But I am not averse to my daughters using a GPS. In fact, I bought them smart phones once they were both driving just so I knew that they could find their way around. It was a comfort to me when they were running around this weekend at a concert up north.
Besides, at least there is someone out there giving advice they take.
Gretchen Leigh is a stay-at-home mom who lives in Covington. You can also read more of her writing and her daily blog on her website livingwithgleigh.comor on Facebook at “Living with Gleigh.” Her column is available every week atmaplevalleyreporter.com under the Lifestyles section.
