Theodore W. Gray and Jerry Glynn:

Jerry: I have young students who reach for their calculators to get the answer to 5×6. 

My response, when I see that, is to explain that such behavior is socially unacceptable, sort of like picking your nose.  Many people will see this and think the student must be brain damaged.  It’s a social problem, not a mathematical one. 

Theo: I agree that the problem lies with the other people more than with the students.  The most profound engine of civilization is the inability of a larger and larger fraction of the population to do the basic things needed to survive.  Many people fail to realize this. 

Jerry: I don’t understand that statement at all.  It must be very significant. 

Theo: In a society where everyone knows how to hunt, grow food, and make shelter, and knows these things well enough to survive, no one has time for much of anything else–even for perfecting one or the other of these basic skills.  In early tribal societies, some people were undoubtedly better at one thing than another, to the point where they would probably have had a hard time outside the group.  The best arrow makers probably weren’t very good at weaving shoes, and would have had a lot of blisters without some help from the shoe weavers. 

Few people would argue that people who are bad at weaving shoes are somehow inadequate, but it’s surprising how strongly people feel this way about “modern” skills such as the ability to add well.