This is a matter of respect. Playing a game
during class is disrespectful to the teacher and
to your fellow students. I do have games on my TI
and have played them at school, but not during a
lecture -- only when nothing is going on and I
have no work to do. Yes, I am co valedictorian of
a class of 1000, have a 4.75 GPA, and could
handle playing games during class, but I have too
much respect for my teachers and fellow students
to do that. It would make my friends who have to
work at achieving what they do feel unintelligent
because I would be flaunting that I do not have
to work hard at what I do. It is very simple --
games should not be played in class.

For those of you that want a summary of things to come....
i have a gpa of (insert grade point average of 4 or higher) i play games in class and still do well.

Calculators aren't meant for games yadda yadda.

it's disrespectful to teachers...

Now for something you haven't already heard.
Calculators are whatever you want to make them. Much like computers. A computer can be a place to collect gig after gig of pornography and time wasting games or
to do personal finance and write essays. You laid the cash down for your calculator, i say do what ever the hell you want with it.

As for the respect issue...
There are way to many variables...
does the teacher respect you?
does the teacher just read from the manual?
does the teacher make an attempt to make things interesting?
If there is something valid to be learned, get off the calculator.the end.

So? I have a 4.95 GPA, AP national scholar award, and all that other shit, and I don't show one bit of f***ing respect to my teachers 'cuz I don't need to. School is about grades, dumbass, not about morals or respect.

Understanding and learning a subject are mutually exclusive things. Mastering the operations behind high school math is useful, but it does not make you good at math.

Lecture is important:

Understanding and learning a subject and getting good grades in it, are mutually exclusive things. In American HS, students master the operations behind algebra and calculus, math is a lot more than that.

Lecture is important,
Many math geniuses have existed in the past, and have done amazing work for this generation of math students to learn the 1% of the material of mathematics that is1 covered in HS. If you like playing games during class -- fine -- but do not belittle hundreds of years of hard work by assuming you are good at the subject.

You are only fooling yourself.

n

I have to agree good post

They aren't necessary, but they make lot of things
easier. In school we are allowed to use'em, even on tests (that's very nice). My maths professor even supports this and owns several too. He's is one of the most famous game writers for TIs I think. Thanx for one nice teacher.

What has he programmed?

At my school, striking down upon playing games on calcs seems petty to me. Don't get me wrong, I play them every day, nearly every hour, and my teachers hate it. But what they do allow is the playing of Gameboys during class. Do they hide it? no. Do they get in trouble? no. Do they ever get taken away? no. I DON'T SEE WHY THE HELL THEY GET AWAY WITH THAT, AT LEAST A CALC HAS SOME EDUCATIONAL VALUE. Will any teachers respond to me and give me an answer?

I have read the article and ramdomly scanning the comments. Some have considerable points, some are irrelevant. Yes, calculators are necessary in school, but become distractions if they are used to play games when users are no supposed to. There are instances where the user has a 4.0 GPA, but I have found that that is rare. Most people I know who do this has a GPA of about and I know more than 80% of the student body at my school. Just to make my point clear, calculators CAN HAVE GAMES ON THEM, BUT SHOULD NOT BE USED AS A HANDHELD TOY UNLESS YOU HAVE FREE TIME.

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What we do with our OWN calculators is our OWN damned business. If you think you actually have the power to do something about it, then by all means, I allow you to continue. But you cannot. Which is why this stupid argument has absolutely no use whasoever.

What is the use of arguing? To achieve a desired goal. BUT YOU CANNOT BAN CALCULATOR GAMES!! Any goals you have are not attainable!! So what motivation did you HAVE, Shane, in writing this commentary!?!? Did you actually believe people would agree with you, and erase all their games? HAH!

I happen to believe that your letter was simply to start controversy.


FlyAgaric

Are they necessary? No... but that doesn't mean that they shouldn't exist. Computers were originally just calculators, and then advanced to other areas of use, databases, etc... and finally games. Why should graphing calculators be any different?

I think that my TI-83 has been helpful, in that I can see several results back and store a number to a variable to check things. Personally, for gaming I prefer my device-of-choice, the Compaq C-140 (A 4Mhz SH3 processor with Windows CE). The TI/Compaq combo is quite useful, as the Compaq allows text entry and huge Word files and Excel spreadsheets, while the TI has awesome analytical capabilities. I program for both, and find it more educational than many of my classes (by the way, my average is an A, and I do game QUITE often)

no they are not necesary i own 3 graphing calculators 1 i bought 2 i stole, they are full of games and i play them in class constently, that is what keeps me from going nuts in school

Oh good, now we are discussing an ethical question with a thief!
I think I speek for everyone here when I say that I am disgusted, the world would be a better place without people like you.

You STOLE calculators? That makes getting a TI-GraphLink and downloading DoorsOS worth it just for the password protection. Most people don't know how to reset a TI-89, and even if they figured it out, they'd wipe everything, so there goes the games and everything else.

You should return the calculators you stole. If you want entertainment, BUY something. Don't take away $100 - $150 of somebody's hard-earned money just so you can avoid taking notes.

I don't play games in class, I pay attention. The reason why I got games is twofold: 1. I'm a traveller, and it provides entertainment while I travel. 2. I'm a programmer, and it's just another platform to conquer for me ;).

You stole 2 calculators? That's really not nice...
My TI-86 got stolen, so now, I don't let my 83+ SE go out of my sight. It's quite a shame that people have to go to this extreme for people like you to not take their belongings.

Who cares if you have games on your calc? I generally program during math class on my calculator (a ti-83) and also during science class, and don't pay attention in any of my other classes and still manage a 95% average. because I don't need to pay attention most of the time. It doesn't make a difference whether I listen or not, so I choose not to listen and not to slowly die of boredom.

I, well, I don't know, I'd be very sad if I was no longer allowed to use my baby (yes, my graphing calc. is my baby) during math because I played games on it during math. Plus, I get okay grades in math, better then some who pay attention in class. And yes, it is possible to have a C in math, understand what we're learning, even though you don't pay attention, so, I personally think it depends entirely on the person. And yes, I know, my grades would be better if I payed attention, but I do sometimes, and I will now since my mom told me this morning that she'll take my baby away from me if she hears reports of my messing with it during class again.