The paper laptop

In education, we sometimes seem to confuse using more basic or earlier invented tools with teaching "the basics" of a subject. For example, just because paper was invented before computers, it doesn't follow that teaching maths on paper gets more to the basics of the subject than teaching it on computers.

Certainly tool invention order is immaterial to those learning a subject, particularly when the tools in question existed from before they were born. 

This reminds me of an anecdote my daughter provided me. She has a game of drawing "paper laptops"--folding an A4 sheet in half with a keyboard drawn on the bottom, a screen on the top. I asked her "When I was your age [4], why do you think I didn't make paper laptops?" After a couple of seconds' reflection, she replied, "No paper?".