Posted on 03/07/2006 6:56:04 AM PST by ZULU
Although I do understand the point. They don't teach "making change".
Our schools had the kids counting and making simple change starting in first grade.
Like you, I am thoroughly impressed with our school system! In fact, I could email my kids' teachers right now and have a reply in less than 1 hour!
Things actually weren't too bad while there were still actual teachers' colleges (as late as the 50s in Boston). What you're thinking of is **Schools * Of * Education**! To employ the Ed.D.s (Doctors of Education) and make more of them.
Once calculators hit the scene I realized computation was doomed. I would not allow my kids to use them until they were proficient doing it manually.
Blaming this on the schools is silly. Schools today frequently teach statistics, adv, statistics, calculus even adv. calculus. Getting a good education is like always dependent upon the student. If he wants one he can get it. But it is alway convenient to blame the schools.
This happens all the time to me. Buy something for 9 bucks and some change, and hand the cashier 21.00 bucks. Lean back and enjoy the show.
When I hand the cashier a bill, and know that I have change coming, I try to beat the cash register and come up with the correct amount. I usually win.
New math!!!!!!!!! My son came home one day and asked me to help with his math. The problem was something like this: what is 2478 divided by 127, estimate the answer. Now, I am an estimator by trade, and told him to put down 1 for the answer. He said that was not right. I told him it was just an estimate, not a very good one, but an estimate nontheless. I then told him that if his teacher marks the question wrong, to politely tell this to her. He got the question marked correct.
Well, given your tag line, I'll take a wild guess that you are male. If your five year old is female, that would be one explanation. Girls tend to be ready to learn to read before boys.
OMG! Yeah estimation! I have heard of this!! If nothing else on earth MATH is an exact science. There is no estimation in math. morons
Sadly, this problem is not all that new. Nor is the problem one of just school education.
I managed a fast food restaurant in West Texas in the mid and late 80s. I had a young lady who worked for me (for 3 days) that I had to teach how to sweep and mop.
This girl had never been exposed to a broom or mop. She told me that her mother paid somebody else to do that kind of thing.
Back in grade school I learned it by counting up. Purchase is $2.43 given $10, start counting (pennies) 2.44, 2.45, (nickel) 2.50, (quarter) 2.75, 3.00, (dollar) 4, 5, (5 dollar) 10. It also makes sure you use the least number of coins or bills.
You can tell the older, more experienced cashiers because you can see them doing this mentally even though the register told them how much to give back.
And why the heck when they teach long division do they not just come out and tell kids that its a bunch of guessing??/ That it ain't like adding and multiplying which has rules.
parsy, who wonders why we waste much time on long division anyway. And algebra. And science fairs.
in defense of cashiers(of which i am one, and i do know how to make change in my head) when you are busy and the cash register does the work for you, you learn to not pay attention to numbers you don't need to remember.
example. you buy 5.50 worth of stuff...i tell you what you owe and you give me 10$..I HAVE to punch in 10.$ and when i do the 5.50 amount leaves the screen and your change comes up....now when I have 50 transactions in 15 minutes I simply can't remember what everyone's tally came to so I simply try not to retain that number. Now if you gave me 10.50 it does stop me for a second because I have to get the number on the screen out of my head and think for myself for a second:)
Its not that I can't do it its that I have to stop mid transaction and make my brain think differently.
Uh Uh!!! Long division is NOT an exact science. It is just guessing.
parsy, who knows.
Correct.
Well, when you're down at this level. It gets freaky in Ph.D. land, and even engineering, "2+2=5 for sufficiently large values of 2."
Sickness. A complete conversion to electronic cash would definitely result in fewer sick employees. Dollar bills are NASTY, I'm sure most of us did that experiment in biology class.
My personal best was within .43 on a total bill of over $90. My wife just shook her head and called me a freak.
It's the sign of an excellent economy when even the dumbest of the dumb can get a job working a cash register.
No doubt that this is the goal. Hard to say if it is realistic. It never ceases to amaze me how many people don't have a bank account. They want to do business solely in cash. When necessary they pay outlandish fees for money orders and check cashing services. I don't have data but it wouldn't surprise me if this population has not become any smaller despite the commitment you describe.
I am sure a lot of this population is here illegally but by no means all of them. I've run into any number of people with no bank account who demanded to be paid in cash. Only thing they had in common was an attitude.
That depends on the school. I was doing long division in 1st, fractions by 2nd grade, and sines, cosines, square roots, cube roots, etc. by 4th. That was a public school, and I can guarantee it is every bit as good today as it was then.
Most public schools in my area are every bit as good. If you look at test scores, they really are highly dependent upon economic status of the students more than anything else. More than ethnic background or school funding level. My gut tells me that means that the parents aren't doing their part in the process. The private schools in the area simply aren't any better than the well run public schools.
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