We get mail.
I’m confused and frustrated to no end. Last year, the UIL provided a list of approved calculators for math, science, calculator applications and accounting. It was written in black and white on paper. It was in the UIL Constitution. You could hold it in your hands, draw on it, wad it up and toss it in the waste can. Not anymore.
Now, the C&CR states that calculators need only be silent, hand-held and battery-driven, but that’s all it says. There’s no list.
What if God had told Moses, “Forget the stone tablets, just tell people to behave themselves.”
How is this any different? So now, we’re supposed to police this ourselves? Like we’re supposed to know the difference between a four-function calculator and a hand-held computer. Do you realize the kind of confusion this has created? Do you even care? Also, the rules are inconsistent. Math contest: clear memories. Science contest: don’t bother. OK, which is it?
And what about graphing calculators. They’ve always been prohibited. That’s how we’ve always done it. Why change now? I’ll retire in 20 years. Change then. But not now.
And what about the children? Some students can’t afford calculators. Did you ever once think of that? Poor kids don’t have money for iPODS and cell phones and graphing calculators. What are they supposed to do? Use an abacus? You know much a good abacus costs? And which version? The Japanese abacus or the Chinese abacus? Can we get a list of approved abacuses?
I hope you’re satisfi ed. You’ve really made a mess of things.
We respond:
The UIL abandoned its list of approved calculators, effective for the 2004-05 school year. The list was an embarrassment.
Several of the calculators on the list were no longer commercially available. At least one of the companies listed no longer manufactured calculators. They’ve gone exclusively into aluminum siding or something.
The decision to toss the lists wasn’t made lightly. We consulted with coaches, contest directors and representatives of the Texas Math/Science Coaches Association.
Since any list would be out-dated upon delivery, given the rapid progress in technology, we opted to compile general guidelines for calculator use. We asked ourselves, “What’s reasonable?” Here’s what we concluded: calculators must be:
• big enough to hold in the average hand. We didn’t defi ne “average.” It falls somewhere between Shaquille O’Neal and Reese Witherspoon.
• silent. If it clanks like a Ford 250 engine on 79 cent a gallon gas, it’s prohibited.
• battery-operated. That is, it can’t rely on auxillary power. That is, if you have to plug it in, you can’t use it.
We assumed anyone smart enough to coach a pre-engineering contest is intelligent enough to know the difference between a calculator and a hand-held computer.
It was a reach, though.
So, to clarify the issue: hand-held computers such as iPAQs and Palms are not calculators. They are computers and are, as such, prohibited. In other words, if the device plays MP3 fi les, DVDs and computer games, downloads daily stock prices via wireless Internet, replicates life and can, in a pinch, serve as a digital camera and/or telephone, then it’s not a calculator.
Common sense must prevail here.
As for the matter of fairness, we have received no telephone calls from rich or poor schools challenging this decision. I would predict that the students most likely to participate in a UIL math or science contest would already possess a suitable calculator.
Graphing calculators are a reality in every science and math classroom. They’re required for most standardized and college entrance exams. They give them away in boxes of raisin bran. It’s not that tough to get your hands on one.
In addition, schools generally require students participating in all UIL contests — athletic, fi ne arts and academics — to purchase certain equipment. Musical instruments. Books. Athletic shoes.
A pair of Nike Air Garnet III basketball shoes. Now, they’re expensive, but I bet a bunch of kids whose families didn’t attend the Bush inauguration wear them. They fi nd a way.
In the UIL Literary Criticism contest, either the student or the school must purchase a copy of the Handbook to Literature as well as the primary reading selections. Students competing in Social Studies need a copy of David Halberstam’s The Fifties.
Extempers need six or eight of those huge Rubbedrmaid tubs to lug around their fi les of articles on civil war in Africa and Social Security reform, and they ain’t cheap except at Wal-Mart.
We’ve made strenuous efforts to keep costs low, low, low, but it’s unreasonable to think we can operate this program at zero cost. And, of course, we’ll always grapple with specifi c subject-area dilemmas that are way over the head of the typical liberal arts major like myself.
For example, clearing calculator memory.
I don’t know what a graphing calculator remembers. I have no idea how to make it forget something. But I’m smart enough to know who does.
“In Calculator Applications, we have made a major move from last year by putting the burden of calculator clearing onto the shoulder of the contestant rather than the calculator clearer,” says Dave Bourell, our calculator applications contest director.
“Coaches I talk to seem to know the Texas Instruments calculators, where the potential for misuse in pre-programming seems to be greatest. We will disqualify violating calculators this year, and if both calculators are disquali- fi ed, then the contestant is disqualifi ed.”
As for the Mathematics contest, director Larry White says, “On the math test, the calculators will not be cleared at all. It was the consensus of the committee and the coaches involved across the state that there would be no clearing. We will re-examine this at the end of the year to see if the rule needs tweaking.
“’As for handing off or sharing calculators, students should not be allowed to share or hand off calculators during the contests,” White added. “Each student is allowed two calculators in both Math and Calculator contests that are placed on their workspace before the contest. So, sharing or handing off is not permissible.”
So, there it is. I’d like to think the issue of calculator lists serves as a metaphor for our fundamental philosophy of empowerment, that coaches and contest directors should use common sense within the spirit of the rules to answer questions or resolve less-than-black-and-white confl icts arising during competitions.
Short of that, my suggestion: just behave yourself.