This is my story.

The year was 1981. The U.S. economy was circling the drain, hammered from all sides.

High Inflation: The 1970s were marked by high levels of inflation, which continued into the early 1980s. Inflation eroded purchasing power, making it more expensive for consumers to buy goods and services. Each new shopping day at the grocery store resulted in less food on the table for American families.

Unemployment: Unemployment rates were elevated, reaching double digits in some months. The combination of inflation and unemployment, known as stagflation, posed a unique economic challenge that defied traditional policy responses. The economy was in between a rock and a hard place and drastic measures were taken to fix it. Some might say these measures were 'suicidal.'

Monetary Policy: In response to high inflation, the Federal Reserve, under Chairman Paul Volcker, implemented a tight monetary policy. This involved raising interest rates significantly to curb inflation, which contributed to the high levels of unemployment but eventually helped bring inflation under control. To this very day, Paul Volcker is considered to be one of the greatest economic wizards of the age. This praise is debatable.

Oil Crisis: The U.S. faced two oil crises in the 1970s due to geopolitical events, which led to oil price shocks. These shocks affected energy prices, leading to higher costs for both consumers and businesses and contributing to inflationary pressures. The buying power of the US Dollar at home was in the toilet.

Recession: The U.S. experienced a recession which was exacerbated by the monetary tightening. This recession contributed to job losses and economic hardships for many Americans. American workers who were lucky enough to have any job hung on to dear life by a thread. The rest were thrown into an economic ditch and left for dead. The decade of the 1980's was a horror show. The technology sector was able to lift the U.S. economy out of this quagmire in the 1990's. When push comes to shove, American Ingenuity has been, and always will be the driving force of positive social and economic change. The politicians get the credit. The American people get a living wage.

I graduated from college in June 1980. I had earned a double major in History and Social Sciences. I was certified to teach secondary education classes. I walked out of the halls of academia with high hopes of a new career and a new life to go along with it. As soon as the door closed behind me, I heard the sound of sirens and the gnashing of teeth.

The numbers of students in grades 10 - 11 - 12 were dwindling. Entire school districts were being consolidated. Secondary teachers were laid off. Educators with 15 years experience were given pink slips. The alternative was to find another teaching position somewhere and accept starting salary wages. Many chose to find new careers. They were unable to live at wages being paid to new teachers.

I was working three days a week, sometimes four, working as a substitute. Higher paid teachers got the boot and newbies like myself filled the gap at a lower cost. The cost savings outweighed the potential loss of providing a quality education for the next generation. Students were being sent down the assembly lines anyway. As long as they met attendance standards, they graduated with a diploma. Quality of education was secondary.

I had gotten a phone call from a secretary at one of the local high schools. The regular mathematics teacher called in and they need someone to fill his place. It wasn't an advanced class. The students were working on basic arithmetic problems. I took the job. Substitutes could fill in for anyone teaching any subject at the Secondary Level. (I wasn't State Certified to teach classes for younger students in Grade School or what was considered to be Middle School.)

When I arrived at class, two women were in the room. They told me they were working on some kind of a project and all I had to do was supervise. I walked around the room watching students working on their assignments. They had been given a list of math problems to solve. This is an example of what they were working on ...

23 + 35 + 12 = ___

84 + 65 + 11 = ___

13 + 19 + 71 = ___

83 + 10 + 43 = ___

I was surprised to see students, aged 14 to 15 years of age working on these kinds of problems. What really surprised me was watching a young man using a calculator to do the work. I asked one of the women in the room if using a calculator was allowed.
She told me,
"Yes. They can use them"

I asked her,
"Why aren't they using a pencil and paper to do these problems? These are simple problems.
Do they need to use a calculator to solve them?"

She said,
"They don't know how to solve them using a pencil and paper. They aren't teaching this in schools anymore. We are entering into a digital age. Schools feel it is important that students become comfortable using machines. Computers are going to become important. People are going to have to work with them and we believe this exercise of using calculators to solve mathematical equations is the first step."

I told her,
"I agree that computers are going to be important and that all of us are going to have to deal with them. People still have to be able to think. People need to be able to calculate simple math problems without the use of a calculator or using a pencil and paper. They have to be able to add and subtract numbers in their heads. This is a critical skill. We use numbers everyday."

She replied,
"This is a good point but the decision has been made. Schools aren't going back to teaching the old way of using using pencil and paper. As far as figuring out how to do this in their heads, this is beyond what they are capable of doing."

I said,
"This is a mistake."

I went back to supervising the students. I stood behind a young man punching in numbers on his calculator and writing down the answer. I looked at what he had written down for the problems he had already solved. There was a error. I told the student he might want to re-check one of his problems. He did.

He said,
"I must have punched in the wrong number."

He noticed I wasn't holding a calculator in my hand.

He said,
"Where is your calculator?"

I told him I didn't have one.
He asked me how did I know the answer was wrong if I wasn't using one.
I told him I added the numbers in my head.

He replied,
"That's impossible! No one can add numbers in their heads."

Jumping ahead 40 years I found myself working in a casino dealing roulette. It is a Friday night and the place is jammed packed with players. Roulette is busy. Chips are stacked high all over the layout.

A young man playing makes an announcement to the table,
"I have just been accepted to Graduate School. I will be working on a Master's Degree in Computer Science. I am an expert in Python. There isn't a payout on this layout I can't figure out."

He wasn't your typical casino braggart trying to convince everyone around him that he was a gambling expert. He seemed like a sincere, albeit, confused young man who honestly believed in what he said.

He continued,
"Go ahead. Ask me anything. I can figure it out."

He threw down the gauntlet. I picked it up.
I said to him,
"Can I ask you a math question?"

He replied,
"Sure. Ask me anything. I'm an expert."

"What is six times seven?"

He didn't give me the answer. He started out saying that two sixes were twelve, so two twelves were ... he hesitated.

After a moment he contined,
"two twelves are twenty four. That makes five sixes. We have to add two more."

This poor guy was lost. He's thinking five sixes add up to twenty four and he still hasn't gotten closer to answering the question.

I said to him.
"The answer is forty two. Six times seven is forty two."

Roulette is all about multiplication tables. If you don't know that six times seven equals forty two, you can't figure out any payout on the layout because you don't understand the nuts and bolts of the basic arithmetic involved. A new Dealer came in to relieve me. Walking back to the break room, I thought about that day back in 1981 when I was supervising students doing simple arithmetic using calculators. This is where the decision not to teach the next generation how to think had brought us.

Graduate students in Computer Science can't solve basic problems without the use of a machine.