Replying to the rest of the thread:

Most Students won't do the homework; they'll take the zero. They do not view homework as practice for the project or the test. Many of the parents care, but they waited until the children were teenagers to set limits. Now the child is in control.

Calculators are allowed in the elementary schools and in my humble, but learned opinion, should not be. Politicians at the behest of parents led the way for calculator use because we were wasting their intelligence on mundane stuff such as 'rithmetic. I see the results of this policy in the classroom today. The students that do well with the Algebras and beyond are those that are fluent in computational facts and skills. All others struggle to make it through 1st-year Algebra.

At its simplest, mathematics is the study of patterns (or lack thereof). Factoring and/or graphing functions, esp polynomials, writing equations for a line(curve)-of-best-fit (deriving formulas from data), simplifying radicals, and conversions from decimal to rational and vice-versa are just a few of the processes that rely on non-calculator computational mastery.

Every day for 15 minutes, my high school students compute with fractions mentally or on paper. They actually like the mental method although I also make them write it out on paper.

Flame me, disagree, write eloquent arguments in opposition, or ignore me; we have reaped what we have sown. Compared with other countries, our math skills are beyond sad.

I weep for our nation.