[nitrogen]

Nice. I had fun in some junior high math competitions in part by writing TI BASIC programs on my calculator to brute force hard problems while I did the easy ones. Eventually they stopped allowing calculators altogether and focused on cheap memorized tricks instead of generalized problem solving.

[nitrogen]

I'm curious what prompted two people to disagree with this comment so quickly, with no comment.

[gaurav_v]

I didn't downvote, but the reason is likely because your comment is off-topic. The parents are talking about experiences un-learning one-sided equality that they picked up programming before learning algebra; your comment is about programming a T-83 to help with schoolwork.