Basically just a general grumble about that state of American (perhaps worldwide?) youth.

So, I went to the pharmacy the other day to cash in my $20 winner and buy a mexiCoke. The girl forgot to enter the $20.00 amount into the register before she totalled my purchases. My total was 11.33. Ok, so she starts freaking out that she messed up, and the other girl was like "Hmmm.. ok, you should've entered $20.00 before you totalled his purchases. Now, umm.. " And I asked what the problem was. Upon being told I said, 8.67. The girls looked at each other, and the one said " I gotta get my phone, I can use my calculator" I said.. "8.67, my change is 8.67" I had to wait about 2 more minutes for the girl to retrieve her phone and enter it in calculator. Shock, my change was 8.67. I asked how they ever got thru to high school math is they can't do basic subtraction. They said they're encourage now to USE calculators instead of trying to figure it out in their head or on paper.. WTF? When I was in school, use of calculators was cheating, period.

What the hell is my country coming to when they can't do basic math without a fucking calculator..

:shakes head:

Is it like this every where else in the US? the world? Or do I just by chance live in Dumb City, Pennsylvania, USA?

I'm a professor (don't know if that's the correct term, I can teach in secondary education), physics degree.

It's the same here.
Last year I had a 16-year old girl (private lessons, the reason the kids do more lessons except school is something unique to Greece) who had a serious problem with multiplication. I mean taking half a minute and 2-3 guesses to multiply 6 with 9.

This year a class with 17 year old students who will go to a uni department of sciences, can't/don't want (to) multiply or divide 3 or 4-digit numbers without a calculator.

Well, when I was in high school, most math classes made you show your work for basic math, which sucked. You had to show less as the years went by, but it was still a pain for a long time. Up until my senior year, every math class required you to show atleast some of the basic stuff, even if it was just wasting your time. The last math class I took had (buisness math, basically stuff you might actually use in real life) you use calculators if you wanted to, since they just assumed you could add, subtract and multiply, and wanted to teach you stuff besides basic addition/subtraction, etc. That was great, because by the time you're in senior year of high school, you shouldn't have to pad out your work showing that you can multiply 5 * 12. Now, I'm pretty bad at advanced math (I failed Algebra twice, ended up taking the buisness math class to get my last math credit, although up until Algebra I did decent at math), but I can do basic stuff. But, I can't multiply 2 digit plus numbers, or divide three digit plus numbers in my head, unless they are very easy. I can give someone a pass on not being able to do stuff like that in your head, and I do support calculators in general. I mean, if you're going into some science carewer or something that really needs that kind of math, you should probably know it, but for the average person I think expecting them to multiply/divide numbers with multiple digits isn't very fair.

That said, impulse's example was basic subtraction, and doesn't really apply to my idea of when calculators are appropriate (I just wanted to state my support of calculators in school). Now, I couldn't do that subtraction instantaneously, it took me about 5 seconds to do it in my head, but I think thats pretty fast. That person seems to be the counter argument to my support of calculators, the kind of person who probably should have spent more time actually learning how to do it. That said, having suffered through having to show my work throughout the years in homework with stuff I knew how to do, I am a supporter of using calculators in the classroom, atleast under most circumstances, atleast by the time you get to high school.

Uhmmmm....so I went into Google Earth on my phone (took me about 2 seconds, take that Calculator Girl! ) and looked up Dumb City, Pennsylvania, USA...and...guess what...*drum rolls*




I bet they could do a lot of "additions" and "multiplications" up there!

....and what the hell is a mexiCoke? Is it for *emorrhoids?!?

PS: Ssssshhhhhhhh....please don't tell theadirondackcoyote ok? Or I wouldn't hear the end of it

Spy, there's also a Climax Pennsylvania, Bulger Pennsylvania, Beaver County, Pennsylvania, and there's Beaver and Beaver Falls in Beaver County..

And mexiCoke is Coca-Cola imported from Mexico, in glass bottles, made with real sugar. It is AWESOME.. Makes me all nostalgic.

Aye sir imps, even though we "disagree" on a lot of things around here on CK and your disdain for going to "spas" with other men (I see no reason why you couldn't go with women or animals if that is one of your hung-ups)....but with regards to the above "exotic" places... you are "preachin to the choir" my lord. Which seems to be timely because I remember asking you sir, if you could perhaps "assign" me a Squire? A Knight does require a Squire, does he not? I think I have a found my Squire sir!!!! Now if she only be a woman Squire / Cowgirl...with a CK name like mcgroupy she'd be perfect indeed sir! I'll definitely bring her to Climax...Pennsylvania

I could almost be sure how our Medieval Historian will react to the above:



Me *sigh2*...what can I say? Kids these days...Not only do they not know their "Math", but also do not appreciate their "History" and their "Geography"


PS: In the meantime, poor ol' me is still getting a drubbing on English "sex" semantics here, for using the word "gay".

when my friends/family and I are at a restaurant,we use the following formula:

b+(t=b÷10)/p=bpp
b=bill
t=10% of bill=b÷10=tip
p=number of people
bpp=bill per person

saves us 15 minutes of arguing about who ordered what.

Get this kind of thing at Magic tournaments.

There are some kids who are superb at the strategy side of the game but when it comes to recording their life total (starts at 20 then reduces as damage is dealt) you can see them counting down on their fingers whenever they need a new total.

I am very capable of calculating stuff in my head. And I am 16 years old.
We do use the calculators in class but our teacher encourages us to find alternative solutions and think about the task first. If you aren't able to solve it without the calculator you can use that.
As always there are some dumb "kids" and some smarter ones.

I am really bad with mathematical terms in english so i will leave it at that.

@Spaced: used to host Yu-Gi-OH! tournaments,the equivalent to MTG's 20 life total is 8000 life points,most cards have X00,X000 or XX00 points,like 500,1000,1500,2000,2500 or 3000,so it's super easy to calculate damage