Fractions, As Obsolete as Roman Numerals?

A mathematics professor at The University of Pennsylvania believes that fractions "have had their day". He feels, not only, that they are a useless practice but that in teaching them they do more harm than good. He believes that because some students find difficulty in learning fractions they lose confidence and give up on math. There will always be students who give up on math, just like there will always be students who just aren't good at it. But if we are to revoke the teaching of something because we can simply compute it by tapping a few buttons and, here's the deal breaker, not using our brains at all instead teaches our children (math-apt and not) to always be relying on outside resources. Coming from a student who struggled with fractions more than most of her peers I can tell you that the only reason kids continue to believe that fractions are hard or unnecessary is because theres an easier way. DeTurck, the professor, suggests that fractions not be removed completely but postponed until after calculus is learned. Perhaps the problem isn't that kids cannot grasp their importance rather it's just not being taught to do so. A child may be able to compute something on a calculator to get a result of 13.7 but does that child understand that that means 13 plus seven tenths? Fractions are a stepping stone to decimals and calculus, not the other way around.