To the editor:

What has happened to the ability to do simple math? I stood at the checkout counter of a local store and watched in amazement and dismay as a clerk in the adjacent lane became frustrated because she could not find a calculator to figure out the individual price of a product that was being sold at a price for multiple pieces. The math was not difficult, simply dividing one round number by another and yet the clerk could not do the math without a calculator.

What has happened to our school system if students do not learn to do simple division without electronic assistance? Isn’t it better for students to exercise their minds rather than their fingers? Oh wait, they might not pass the required achievement tests if they have to think and understand division. Then they might be a child left behind.

David Bishop,

Lawrence