system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: Calculators should never be artificially restricted in math, even on tests

Edit: wording of the title is confusing. I mean that in math classes above algebra 2, calculators should never be restricted

Restricting calculators in math class is dumb because there will never be a point in time where you have to solve something without a calculator and do not currently have one, or are without the means to obtain one. I am mainly talking about math above algebra 2, as understanding how numbers fundamentally interact with each other is important. The restrictions of calculators don't help students learn better, they just increase tedium. 

In addition to this, all calculators should be able to show work when prompted, and should go through regular testing for bugs and the like. Class time devoted to teaching people how to work without a calculator should be instead be used to teach people how to use a calculator effectively. 

People have access to calculators pretty much all the time, whether they be on a phone or online. When more advanced math is needed, there are online scientific calculators or you could just carry one around.
gpt
I think it depends on what you're teaching, and on what kind of calculator you're talking about. Being able to use a calculator effectively sometimes means being able to work without using one at all.

If you're teaching students how to do long division, for example, then using a calculator is pointless and doesn't help the learning process a lot.

If you're teaching algebra, then it's reasonable to let students use calculators that are only able to do arithmetic, because they should already know arithmetic anyway. But they shouldn't be using calculators that can do algebra because, again, it's pointless and doesn't help the learning process.

Doing math without a calculator can be tedious, of course, but that can be said of doing any kind of work. Doing pushups can be tedious too, after all, but it's necessary for getting stronger. Watching someone else do pushups (i.e. letting the calculator do the math for you) doesn't do anything to make you stronger. Calculators, when used properly, are mostly a labor-saving device, not a replacement for the ability to do math.

The reason that it's important to be able to do certain things entirely without a calculator is because, if you can't do that, then you won't necessarily know how to correctly interpret the answer that the calculator gives you. I've seen this when grading homework assignments for undergraduate college students. You can often tell which ones used Wolfram Alpha to do calculus for them because they put down really weird (and wrong) answers involving special functions and edge cases. Wolfram Alpha itself isn't doing anything wrong, it's just that the students who use it without fully understanding the calculus aren't able to correctly interpret its output in the context of the problem that they're trying to solve. The ones who can actually do it out by hand never make this mistake.

And, really, this only becomes more important as you do more advanced kinds of math. The easiest and most reliable way of debugging advanced mathematics algorithms is to take a simple example and do it out by hand, and then compare what you're doing to what the computer is doing. If you can't do that then you're in for a bad time.