Society's future through today's youth
By arrgophil
@arrgophil (96)
United States
July 31, 2008 11:40pm CST
This may be my anal nature, but I've become increasingly concerned about how we are training our young people for the rigors of life in a world that's growing ever so complicated and competitive.
Recently, I bought some yarn at a craft store. The cash register had malfunctioned. The cashier appeared to be about 20 years or so. To my dismay, she could not calculate my change with our the help of her cash register. she actually retrieved he cell phone to use the calculator.
This was a simple matter of subtraction, but the lady was actually confounded. Is simple math not taught in the schools anymore?
Believe me, this is not the first incident where service was affected my a failure to know basic skills and the over dependence on tools other than the brain.
1 response
@scarlet54 (26)
•
2 Aug 08
Couldn't agree more but in the UK they are taught with the aid of calculators and computers.
I had a similar example when I went into a shop and bought something for £1.20. I didn't have a pound so I gave the assistant a £2 coin and a 20p piece expecting to get back one pound. The look on his face was a picture and he was obviously horrified at the thought of working this out. I tried to explain to him but he was scared stiff i was cheating him until I suggested calling his superior over!
Sorry for those in US and elsewhere but I'm not sure how I'd explain the above in dollars and cents but hopefully you get my gist?
