THE ULTIMATE COMPUTER
The human brain is much like a computer, and not by accident. After all, computers were designed by humans to do our calculations for us. The human brain accepts input through the 5 senses. This input goes into short term memory (like what you type on your computer screen). Information is then, theoretically, transferred to long term memory (like a disc, where information is periodically "saved" in a computer). Similar to a word processing program, if the information is pushed aside or the brain is distracted by other input, then information not "saved" in long term memory is lost. Finally, the brain logs information along a neural pathway somewhere in the brain. When needed, the brain searches itself for the data. The more often input is logged into the brain, the more paths it is stored on, and the easier it is to retrieve. If you have ever used a "find file" program, you have seen how a computer searches its memory for stored data. Have you ever unsuccessfully searched for a file you knew was there, but your computer said wasn't? IT FORGOT! The information was put into the computer; it is still there, but it can't be retrieved, and that is what happens when you "forget" something you've learned. It's in there, your brain just can't find it. Another computer problem is trying to open a file that is in your file manager, but the computer says can't be opened. Boy, I hate that! It makes me remember the number of times I've had to say, "It's on the tip of my tongue, but...". The comparison being made here is with data only, not software. Human memory is very much like data storage and retrieval, but not like software.
Now consider the calculator. The information it has stored in it consists of the tools necessary to compute the correct answer to any problem you give it. No, it has not been programmed with an unlimited number of answers to all possible number combinations it could possibly have fed into it! Each time you enter numbers and operations into a calculator, it takes the values and operations and figures out the answers for you. Now think about how fast that happens, and remember that the human brain is infinitely faster and more complex than the most powerful computer!
Consider the difference between program software and data. What good is data fed into a computer if you can't do anything with it? we feed our children volumes of raw data, repeated adnausium until they can recall the "answers" by heart - we call it memorizing. But what have they actually learned? Nothing more than monkey responses to questions: When teacher asks "What is 2 + 2?", mouth responds "4". But why and how did we come by 4 as the correct answer? It is NOT true because teacher said so; teacher said so because it is true. And therein lies the difference between memorizing and learning. Memorizing is data entry, but the human brain is a total computer, meant to do work on the data. Arithmetic is a skill; at tool. To teach a child to memorize all those "facts" is to ask them to enter meaningless data. To teach arithmetic properly is more like installing a new software program that can do the work you need done.
Our brains are not warehouses to store unlinked and unusable bits of worthless data - the hard drive in your computer. Our brains are for thinking, calculating and reasoning - the software that does the work on the data. What good is knowing addition facts for the numbers 1 - 12 when you need to add 37 and 16 in the real world - on your feet, quickly, in public with a lot of distractions around you, and horrors, no paper?!
Valder Systems' programs are specifically designed to teach students how to use their brains properly to calculate the correct answer to arithmetic problems. They learn how numbers work, how to take them apart, put them back together again, and how to arrive quickly and effortlessly at the answer they need.
Our children are not mindless drones. God did not create our minds to be unthinking storage warehouses for other people's thoughts.
If your computer needed to store the sums of virtually every possible additive combination of two or more numbers in its memory, how quickly would it run out of room? Considering the number of possible decimals and fractions, your computer would crash before it got to 1 + 1. Now, why do we suggest that humans store unrelated answers to so many math questions (schools and educators call them "facts")?!
It is not logical, efficient or in any way beneficial to the individual to memorize a litany of meaningless data - Garbage in, garbage out.
We knew this, once upon a time, and in some countries they still teach math as a skill used to figure out answers quickly, efficiently and correctly. Valder Learning Systems has developed a contemporary system of teaching arithmetic using this philosophy.
I often hear, when a student is asked to add or multiply, "I don't have my calculator with me..." To which I respond, "What's that between your ears?" Gasps and horrors, I sound like my dad!
