An Ode to a Graphing Calculator
Texas Instruments’ ridiculously expensive graphing calculator is slowly but surely being phased out. Times are changing for the better, but I feel nostalgic. I have great memories of my TUEs.
You probably have an expensive Texas Instruments graphing calculator packed somewhere. I do. I actually have two left. For years, TI graphing calculators have been on the school must-have list of nearly every student who even stepped into high school math. These are the only calculators accepted for major standardized tests, including the SAT, ACT, AP, and IB exams.
When I was in school, everyone had it. And if you haven’t poked your head into high school for a while, you still are – and they haven’t gotten any cheaper. My first graphing calculator, the TI-83 Plus, which was the standard at the time, cost my parents over 15 years ago. Guess what? They’re still just as expensive , although your watch probably has more processing power now. They can cost over $ 200 depending on the model.
But recently, several school districts across the country have dealt a decent blow to the stranglehold that Texas Instruments has long held on the wallets of students and families. The Desmos calculator app , which can be installed on an IOS or Android device for free, has been cleaned up for use in some standardized testing across 14 US states . It is also available in your browser. TI remains the leader in 60 other high-stakes exams, according to Texas Instruments Education Technology President Peter Balit , but his days appear to be numbered.
This is a welcome item for almost everyone. If this trend continues, Texas Instruments will no longer have a monopoly on calculators, and low-income families will no longer be forced to spend a lot of money on plastic bricks that take up space in students’ backpacks most of the time. Hopefully math will become more accessible to everyone. This is really for the best.
However, I am a little sad. Partly because I am getting old and losing touch with today’s youth, but also partly because I loved my calculators and future children will not get the same experience as me. During my math journey from algebra to high-level math analysis in college, my graphing calculators became an extension of my brain. But that’s not why my love for cars came. No, it was games and other “apps” that made my connection to my TIs.
You see, in high school, my friends and I ran an underground calculating game exchange network. The process was simple. With the help of a special cable, you can install games that you have found in the darkest depths of the Internet on your device. Then, using the same cable, you can transfer the game data to another calculator.
The TI-83 and up could run all kinds of games that I played in class, on the bus, or even at home – even though I had a perfectly functional GameBoy. Oh, the hours I spent playing Snake trying to beat my friends’ records. How I wanted to beat Phoenix, the bullet shooter I still can’t believe was written in TI-Basic. From text-based adventures to near-perfect recreations of the Bubble Bobble, my TI has been my favorite gaming device. Anyone could play them in class, and the teachers would not be wiser about it. Now I know that kids can play games on their phones quite easily, but smartphones are a curse on teachers right now, and their openness is far more suspicious than an innocent calculator . My math teachers had no idea that the only numbers that worried me were my high scores.
Some games, such as the ancient tales told by speakers over the years, were simply passed down from generation to generation. Nobody knew where most of the games came from, but everyone had them. Every week it felt like a new game needed to be acquired, and the kids with the most popular TI game collections – like me – had people queuing up in the hallway. As in a shady nook, children came up to me at dinner and asked if I had anything new. “Yes, I have a connection,” I replied, “But what do you have for me?” I would like to think that somewhere in the country, a child is playing a game that I once passed on from my own TI-83 Plus.
So I will look with a smile on the bright future of more accessible mathematical tools, but I will not look back with hatred. No, today I’m pouring one onto my TIs. Your reign will soon end, my friends, but I will never forget you.