Is this cheating?

I recently started working with a young man who wants a little tutoring, especially in math. He's in his 20s, articulate, a pretty good reader, but feels the need to be more fluent in math.  We were talking the other day and, when I asked him how he does math now, he explained that he uses a calculator, then went on to say "but I know that's cheating." Now I am definitely a believer in teaching students the basics of math.  I think they should know the multiplication tables and basic approaches to calculation but I was surprised that he thought using a calculator was cheating. I thought about it a little bit, then asked him "If you were building a bookcase, and needed to nail some boards together, would you consider it cheating to use a hammer, and try to pound those nails in with your fist?" He laughed at that but he got the point. I told him that if he was in school and taking a test where he had been told not to use a calculator, then to use one would be cheating, but out in the real world it is a good thing to use whatever tools are available to get the job done, and a calculator is a very useful tool. Then I casually mentioned that when I was in grade school we didn't have calculators and that brought up the question of when I graduated from high school. When I told him 1962, he looked at me like that was just inconceivable. Boy do I feel old.