60% of girls aged 18-21 cannot do basic addition/subtraction w/o calculator

[Wheezer]

I'd like to see one person under 50 count back change correctly instead of relying on the register to tell them what to hand back.

 

[TallBill]

Originally posted by: Sumguy
Huh...quick! Someone use mental math to figure this out!

17% of 80 (kind of easy)

56 + 80, 136.. more then "kind of" easy.

 

[Sumguy]

Originally posted by: TallBill

Originally posted by: Sumguy
Huh...quick! Someone use mental math to figure this out!

17% of 80 (kind of easy)

56 + 80, 136.. more then "kind of" easy.

But its interesting to see the different ways people solve the same problem.

8+4+(2*.8)=13.6 for me

 

[ebaycj]

Originally posted by: cubby1223

Originally posted by: 3NF
I don't know. My brother told me that his 13 year old son has to ask the cashier how much money he should get back, and yet he is supposedly learning this "new age" math.

New age math is one of the biggest crocks I've ever heard of. First, it only works for students who actually deeply care about learning. Second, isn't it also like the whole class waits on the last student to learn every lesson? It goes at such a snail's pace.

I know math very well myself, and my cousin's kids are going through new age math. I looked at some of the assignments, took me a while to figure out what they are getting at. In high school I was on the math team winning the regional events, I know my stuff. My cousin's son is one of the better students in his class, but even when I try to tell him what the lessen is really trying to teach, he doesn't understand it at all. He's just taking objects and rearranging them because the instructions tell him too, he gets good grades without learning a damn thing.

Self confidence while you're young is far more important than the inevitable disaster later on in life, I guess.

Interesting. I was unaware of this "new age math" until i googled it in response to this thread.

I am 28 now, apparently I learned "the old school math" when i was in JHS / HS.

Funny thing is that I developed a methodology very similar to "new age math" in my head, to make things easier / quicker, that's how I do all my arithmetic now.

i.e. 54*32, in my head, is :
50*30 + 50 * 2 + 4*30 + 4*2 = 1500 + 100 + 120 + 8 = 1728

 

[ebaycj]

Originally posted by: IcebergSlim
Ok so at the lounge I work at we've had 5 cashiers I've had to work with. All of them are high school grads. A couple are in college. None of them had basic understanding of how cash registers worked.

Whats worse is the 3 out of 5 required a calculator to make change. Cover charge is either 8, 10, 12 or 15. There is no coinage only round dollar amounts are used.

basic things like two $12 cover charges out of $40... what is the change? They have to ask me?

On more than one occasion they asked customers how much they should give them back.....


Its not like prices change constantly. They give the same change back over and over and they cannot even memorize the correct change to give...they have to continually ask....

how do you graduate middle school, let alone high school let alone get into college with out being able to do simple arithmetic.....

please assure me this is an isolated incident.

The real question is: How big are their "Brains" ?

 

[torpid]

Originally posted by: IcebergSlim

Originally posted by: torpid

Originally posted by: IcebergSlim

Originally posted by: torpid
So you are extrapolating observations from a crap job at a local lounge to the entire population despite the obviously biased sample group and tiny sample size? In other words... they didn't pay attention in grade school and you didn't pay attention in high school?

you can climb off your high horse buddy boy if you read the whole op the last line states:

please assure me this is an isolated incident.

now please go fuck yourself.

So either you posted something knowing it is complete horse shit just to incite a misogynistic thread or you paid no attention in high school during statistics classes and actually believe your extrapolation has even the slightest bit of validity. Which is it?

Based on your posts, I'd say the reason why there are such unintelligent women working the same place as you are is pretty obvious.... an intelligent woman would find another job.

just ride your horse into the sunset its obvious you haven't read the thread.

waitresses and hostesses are very common jobs for girls 18-21 who need something part time while in school. giddy up.

But you didn't survey all waitresses or even a random sampling. You are judging based on people who work a crap job at a club that clearly doesn't have very rigorous hiring standards.

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

Originally posted by: IcebergSlim


ok but its money.....how do they ever know they are getting short changed. How can they balance a check book?

Why balance a checkbook when you can swipe daddy's credit card?

Wh yis it we could put men on the moon with slide rulers and graph paper in the 60's but now people can't do simple math?

 

[Xavier434]

60% sounds high to me. It sounds more like the wrong people were hired to do this job. I especially believe that after you said they asked the customers how much to give them.

I would be more inclined to believe that 60% cannot do the arithmetic as quickly in their heads as they can type it in a calculator or maybe 60% are more prone to making mistakes doing it in their head, but that is more about how much you regularly do arithmetic without a tool to help you which is very seldom once you are out of school. Most people just use a calculator of some kind out of fear of making a mistake more than anything. Over time, you just end up relying on it more but the skills never really go away for most people. You just get rusty.

 

[torpid]

Originally posted by: JeffreyLebowski

Originally posted by: IcebergSlim


ok but its money.....how do they ever know they are getting short changed. How can they balance a check book?

Why balance a checkbook when you can swipe daddy's credit card?

Wh yis it we could put men on the moon with slide rulers and graph paper in the 60's but now people can't do simple math?

Because the group that sent people to the moon were ludicrously intelligent people compared to the rest of the population.

 

[OutHouse]

Originally posted by: Wheezer
I'd like to see one person under 50 count back change correctly instead of relying on the register to tell them what to hand back.

in high school i worked as a cashier for a hardware store and i could never get the knack of counting back change.

"here is five, 10 and 82 makes twenty...." ugggg

oddly enough when im the customer i can do it and know exactly within a second how much i am to get back. but when im the one giving the money back i cant ....

i know im a retard.

 

[ryan256]

Originally posted by: ebaycj
Interesting. I was unaware of this "new age math" until i googled it in response to this thread.

I am 28 now, apparently I learned "the old school math" when i was in JHS / HS.

Funny thing is that I developed a methodology very similar to "new age math" in my head, to make things easier / quicker, that's how I do all my arithmetic now.

i.e. 54*32, in my head, is :
50*30 + 50 * 2 + 4*30 + 4*2 = 1500 + 100 + 120 + 8 = 1728

I'm about the same with you on this. To me its
(54*3) *10 + 54*2 = 162*10 + 108 = 1728

I think the problem two fold. Kids being allowed to use calculators too early in school and being rewarded for plain dumbassery. I was taught that you use the calculator as a shortcut not a crutch.

 

[imported_yovonbishop]

I doubt it's just girls bud. I went into Burger King and the 17-18 year old kid behind the counter told me it would be $4.56 or something like that - I handed him a 10 and somehow he managed to give me back $7.75. I would consider that this was possibly just an error with him grabbing too much money or something, but when he handed me my recepit he had actually did the math with a pencil on the back. He subtracted $4.56 from $10 and gotten the $7.75 somehow. I was so sad, I wanted to cry.

 

[TallBill]

Originally posted by: yovonbishop
I doubt it's just girls bud. I went into Burger King and the 17-18 year old kid behind the counter told me it would be $4.56 or something like that - I handed him a 10 and somehow he managed to give me back $7.75. I would consider that this was possibly just an error with him grabbing too much money or something, but when he handed me my recepit he had actually did the math with a pencil on the back. He subtracted $4.56 from $10 and gotten the $7.75 somehow. I was so sad, I wanted to cry.

I'd cry if I was eating at Burger King too.

 

[BoomerD]

Too many people depend on calculators for their daily math. I see it in school kids all the time. (kids of people we know) They get to use calculators in almost all their math classes, eliminating the need to think.
Granted, if you don't know what to enter into a calculator, you won't get the right answer, (GIGO) but a certain basic understanding of 40-24=16 should be required to draw breath.

 

[CaptainKahuna]

This scares the sh*t out of me, and this is why:

There are a few people in this thread calling the OP's workplace a "crap" job, etc. Here's the thing - it's not. This is middle America. Club workers, waitresses, department store clerks, etc. To us (the AT crowd, generally well educated and science-minded) these people seem like the lower end of society. They're not. The average household income (Wikipedia) in America is $48,500. That means 50% of the country makes less than that. These are your waitresses, clerks, bus drivers, etc. These are the people that in general have problems with basic arithmetic.

Here is where it gets scary: That means 50% of the people voting for president likely can't do basic substraction in their head. 50% of people voting for president will take out a sub-prime mortgage they can't afford and then expect the government to bail them out. 50% of the people voting for president probably use credit cards like free money, paying only the minimum balance every month.

And now you know why the candidates never talk about important issues - social security, the economy, etc. Why? Because 50% of Americans likely don't understand, or care about, these issues. And guess what? 50% of the vote wins the presidency. So the candidates will spend their time talking about issues that don't really matter to the country (gay marriage, abortion, etc) but that push people's buttons and win votes.

This is why the electoral college was created - because the founding fathers had this figured out. They realized that glamorous as democracy may be, there is part of the population that really has no business running this country and making important decisions on issues.

Yes, I know this was an impressive rant (and quite a deviation from the topic). Flame away.

 

[Modelworks]

Math scores in this country have been on the decline for years.
So its not surprising.

Someone I was talking to yesterday mentioned that the kids in school now will be the first generation of kids that don't know what life is like without computers and the internet.

More overweight, can't add 2+2, no respect for others, generation to look forward to

 

[RaiderJ]

I have a hard time believe that.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: CaptainKahuna
This scares the sh*t out of me, and this is why:

There are a few people in this thread calling the OP's workplace a "crap" job, etc. Here's the thing - it's not. This is middle America. Club workers, waitresses, department store clerks, etc. To us (the AT crowd, generally well educated and science-minded) these people seem like the lower end of society. They're not. The average household income (Wikipedia) in America is $48,500. That means 50% of the country makes less than that. These are your waitresses, clerks, bus drivers, etc. These are the people that in general have problems with basic arithmetic.

Here is where it gets scary: That means 50% of the people voting for president likely can't do basic substraction in their head. 50% of people voting for president will take out a sub-prime mortgage they can't afford and then expect the government to bail them out. 50% of the people voting for president probably use credit cards like free money, paying only the minimum balance every month.

And now you know why the candidates never talk about important issues - social security, the economy, etc. Why? Because 50% of Americans likely don't understand, or care about, these issues. And guess what? 50% of the vote wins the presidency. So the candidates will spend their time talking about issues that don't really matter to the country (gay marriage, abortion, etc) but that push people's buttons and win votes.

This is why the electoral college was created - because the founding fathers had this figured out. They realized that glamorous as democracy may be, there is part of the population that really has no business running this country and making important decisions on issues.

Yes, I know this was an impressive rant (and quite a deviation from the topic). Flame away.

"The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter." - Winston Churchill

Or else, "People get the government they deserve."

 

[Rudee]

I read that 1 out of 4 children are mathematically illiterate. 1 out of 4!! That's 50%!

 

[torpid]

Originally posted by: CaptainKahuna
This scares the sh*t out of me, and this is why:

There are a few people in this thread calling the OP's workplace a "crap" job, etc. Here's the thing - it's not. This is middle America. Club workers, waitresses, department store clerks, etc. To us (the AT crowd, generally well educated and science-minded) these people seem like the lower end of society. They're not. The average household income (Wikipedia) in America is $48,500. That means 50% of the country makes less than that. These are your waitresses, clerks, bus drivers, etc. These are the people that in general have problems with basic arithmetic.

It's a crap job based on the numerous pieces of evidence we have, not because it's a club in general.

 

[CaptainKahuna]

Originally posted by: CaptainKahuna
This scares the sh*t out of me, and this is why:

There are a few people in this thread calling the OP's workplace a "crap" job, etc. Here's the thing - it's not. This is middle America. Club workers, waitresses, department store clerks, etc. To us (the AT crowd, generally well educated and science-minded) these people seem like the lower end of society. They're not. The average household income (Wikipedia) in America is $48,500. That means 50% of the country makes less than that. These are your waitresses, clerks, bus drivers, etc. These are the people that in general have problems with basic arithmetic.

........

This is why the electoral college was created - because the founding fathers had this figured out. They realized that glamorous as democracy may be, there is part of the population that really has no business running this country and making important decisions on issues.

Yes, I know this was an impressive rant (and quite a deviation from the topic). Flame away.

BTW - I've taken this topic to P&N as well (my first foray into that mess). Hope I come out alive.

 

[Train]

Originally posted by: Kelemvor
Once i started in Calculus and Trig and things like that, I lost the ability to do simple math. But I stopped all that and now I can do normal math fine again.

Same here, I work with complex formulas every day at my job, and can usually whip out several long winded ones off the top of my head error free, but then if I have to add 20.5 with 6.75 in my head, I literally have to stop and think, like uhh wait.

 

[TehMac]

Originally posted by: FoBoT
my daughter is on the math team

Uh...you have a daughter?

 

[Rubycon]

If someone asks me for a calculator I'll hand them a Curta! That will math 'em alright! :laugh: If he's good looking and knows how to use it he's going to dinner on my dime.

 

[randay]

Originally posted by: Rudee
I read that 1 out of 4 children are mathematically illiterate. 1 out of 4!! That's 50%!

50%? holy shit! thats almost half!