ABSTRACT
These basics are more than being functional in arithmetic. "Over the long term, basic skills only give you the right to compete against the Third World for Third World wages.—Marc S. Tucker" (MSEB, 1989, p. 84). The technology available today through calculators and computers provides an avenue for computation that is faster and more accurate than anything that can be done by hand. An exception would be the failure of Intel's Pentium chip in December 1994 to accurately perform specific long division problems. The ramifications of this problem were widespread, impacting scientists, engineers, and spreadsheet users when doing division processes. A human exception would be individuals as depicted in the movie Rain Man, in which an autistic individual possessed a computer's lightning speed ability to process computations. If the emphasis on basic computational skills is decreased in the K-12 mathematics curriculum, it will have a dramatic impact not only on what is taught and how it is taught, but also on the role of the classroom teacher.
