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Comment: Re:Tech in schools is such a waste (Score 2) 311

by msuarezalvarez (#38592538) Attached to: Teachers Resist High-tech Push In Idaho Schools

> I always hated the "show your work" because I could usually do it in my head a lot faster so I never bothered.

The thing is, for most purposes "I did in in my head" turns a solution into uselessness. Solutions to problems are things that you can communicate with others. There is almost as much value in *how* you got to a solution as in the solution itself, because a good *how* actually adds value. No one builds a 100 floor building after an engineer computed something in his head.

Most of what you learn is not useful in itself, but as a way to teach you how to "show your work". The showing of your work is what really counts.

The standard argument I get from [university] students when I fail them for not making their reasoning explicit is that because the problem was easy, it was pointless. The underlying idea is that they can simply skip the communicative part of solving something easy, and magically when they are confronted with the problem of communicating something difficult they'll somehow manage.

Hating-the-"show-your-work" is simply something you have to get over.
