While I’m not fundamentally opposed to kids learning basic math, even at that time it was used (think 1990-1996) it was a bullshit argument to ban them. After all, they were already cheap enough that a kid could have one on their wrist!

Heck, you can now buy them for less than a dollar on Aliexpress. But why would you, since literally every smartphone has one built in. It was silly to ban them.