Your comments seem to be combative and it sounds like you have a philosophical objection to iPads, smartphones, etc. Nobody here is going to change your philosophy, but you put a serious tag on your post so I’m to assume you are looking for thoughtful responses.

Yes you can learn to fly without an iPad. However, most pilots would recommend having one as it offers advantages to dramatically speed up flight planning, provides more accuracy / a checkpoint against manual process, and is a valuable tool for situational awareness in the cockpit. Like any technology, there is a risk of becoming overly dependent on it, but based on your feeling about tech, this doesn’t seem like a trap you would fall into.

Flight planning in particular is a very detail oriented activity. Without an iPad, there are a number of things that must be calculated by hand. Some of this is useful for understanding the underlying principals, but much of it is tedium that does not really add to the safety of flight. The calculations must be done and you should really understand how they are done, but leaving the actual computation to the computer is safe, saves time, and eliminates human mistakes. Even if you plan a flight “the old school way” on paper, consider that the chart you are using was built using navigational and computational tools, you will use devices such as protractors to take measurements, and even a calculator to do basic math an ratios. There are wind drift charts and circular slide rulers - these are also computational tech aids and you would have to trust the math that was done to build them. The iPad simply brings all this together and does the measurements for you. At the end of the day, you need a heading to fly and an attitude to fly it at - doing it one way or the other will not make a difference as long as the heading gets you where you are going and the altitude keeps you away from terrain and obstacles.

I learned to fly without iPads and then gained them later in life. Besides flight planning, they really are a better alternative to paper charts IMHO for the following reasons:

1. Planning on a paper chart means drawing a line. That line can be hard to see if done in pencil (due to all the colors on the chart) and is indelible if done in pen. If you fly multiple times on the same chart, you either leave the old lines or try to erase them between flights which can lower the fidelity of the chart in the erased areas. iPads have no such issue as the line is digital and can be erased or re-displayed at any time with no loss of fidelity or confusion between two different lines, and the lines are bold and easily readable.
2. Aviation charts are very large and have a folding problem. To see where you are at, you must refold the chart to show where you are and where you are going. Invariably, you are flying in an inconvenient part of the chart requiring origami like folding skills or you fly off the end of the chart requiring you to find the opposing side which is made more complicated because of the previous folds needed to manage the size of the chart in flight. This is a distracting task in the cockpit. It also leads to chart wear as the folds are often opposite of the factory creases. Many charts of mine develops holes and tears at the creases from the various folds I had to do to see where I was at. The charts are cycled out every couple months, which can help with this problem and the one above, but you still must deal with chart wear. iPads solve all of this as there is only one surface for the chart, and while it is smaller than a chart, you can zoom in, out, and swipe to easily and intuitively find your location and your route of flight.
3. When using paper charts, you must cary at least a sectional for your route of flight, which may be on multiple sectionals. You may also need a TAC chart for the extra detail afforded. If you are flying IFR, you will need low altitude route charts and maybe high altitude too depending on the flight, plus all the approach plates for airports of intended landing. This is a lot of paper to carry and to organize. With the ipad, all charts are available in a single package (assuming you loaded them) and they are automatically digitally stitched together seamlessly. When you zoom in to TAC level detail, the TAC is automatically displayed without you even noticing the change. When you slide off the boundary of one chart, you are automatically on the next chart, again without having to think about it. Your route of flight is also drawn as a layer on top of any of those charts. For instance, while I fly IFR a lot, I leave VFR charts up after fight planning as they show more detail about what’s on the ground without me having to plot my route manually on both sets of charts.

Not using an iPad at least for planning and in-cockpit chart reference in this day and age is just silly given the advantages over the alternatives.

iPads also offer some other benefits, namely the viewing of documents and taking of notes. While flying you need to reference documents: checklists, POH, performance tables, and airport references. It’s easy to load and display these on an iPad (within an EFB app). Otherwise it requires having printed them out before flight and organizing them with your charts, or pulling out a POH binder in flight. This is an ancillary benefit, but still handy as you get search, bookmarking, and highlighting. You also need to jot down lots of notes in flight. Weather, routing, times, etc. An iPad with stylus allows you to do this in the same device you use for charts and other uses above vs having a dedicated notepad. Again, this isn’t the main driver, but it’s a handy extra feature.

An iPad is a truly revolutionary device for flying, particular GA flight, in bringing together so many useful features. It’s not required, but it is damn, damn handy.