Flo and Friends by Jenny Campbell for August 24, 2021

I haven’t used a compass since 8th grade, 1963. I’ll bet most kids today don’t even know what that is.

Don’t forget, Miss Digital-wonders that those little toys were enough to send people to the moon. And they’ll go on working in the midst of an Apocalypse.

I keep a supply of old school goodies handy just in case they are right about climate change. ;o)

What, no slide ruler?

I think they should teach these tools in school, even if only briefly. They are powerful in their own right and have a long, long history. Sometimes simple is good.

Weapons of math instruction.

Youngest is a chem major. Taught her how to use a slide rule and it has become her “party trick” in class to amaze classmates. Of course the calculator works much faster.

…but I only use mechanical pencils…

I remember the hard pencil cases that had a sliding top with pencil sharpener built into the one end, and a little white thingy that slid along a numbers grid that revealed the correct results for the multiplication table.