Monday, January 9, 2012 3:12:28 PM
OK, I was about to add a snarky comment about the abacus being a calculator...but that's actually pretty awesome.
It`s cool that they have a way to readily associate numbers in their mind with something physical, instead of just the pure abstraction of symbols. Abacus school could be pretty useful for a lot of students.
Monday, January 9, 2012 6:47:56 AM
"You mean geniuses at math? "
They're not geniuses at math. They`re geniuses at doing large calculations quickly without a calculator. The rest of us can do those large calculations with a calculator in approximately the same amount of time. It`s more impressive to watch them, sure, but that time could have been spent doing something that`s actually beneficial and not something that your average person with a calculator can do in approximately the same amount of time.
Monday, January 9, 2012 5:56:16 AM
It's not really "genius" if it`s something any child can be trained to do. I don`t really find anything impressive about kids who can perform a skill that they are taught and practice for hours a day.