[katdork]

The better/real reason for not allowing calculators in certain classes is because doing these things mentally promotes healthy cognitive development. The same way that handwriting for taking notes provides better recall than writing the same thing with a keyboard.

No matter where the argument is going, turning everything into competition instead of ensuring a good environment for proper and healthy cognitive development is a bad thing.

The alternative is having a society full of hollowed out people, who understand nothing. It is no different with university, it is just a shame that so many of the students who take courses are deeply uninterested in the actual learning that they should be paying money there to attain, instead of some weird grotesque attempt at taking money from people without providing any service in return. (I would be as equally critical of faculty and courses today, as I would of students who do not care.)