Arithmetic

[+ Lucky]

Is it any wonder that these young guys today posting their cock size on the internet can't get it right? At the deli the other day I asked for 2/3 pound of meat. The clerk weighed out .23 pounds. I asked him if he didn't know what two-thirds was and he responded that he did but it could mean different things to different people! So I had to tell him POINT two six seven...and then he got it.

 

Tonight I gave the clerk at the bookstore a coupon for 25% off on a $29 purchase. She discounted me twenty-five cents...

 

New math indeed!

[+ deej]

Basic math has been a lost art for years.

[+ Lucky]

http://math.ucr.edu/~jdp/Articles/Xequals3.GIF

[Rick Munroe]

Hmmm...I thought x = pnp.

[+ Hoover42]

Hi Lucky!

 

>POINT two six seven...

 

Umm...what is that "two" doing in there?

 

...Hoover

[Epigonos]

About ten years ago I was working on the chalk board in front of a group of young high school TEACHERS. At one point I needed to do a long division problem. In the middle of doing so a young teacher turned to another and loudly asked "What is he doing". When I explained she responded "isn't that what calculators are for?"

Now the problem isn't just with mathematics. On another occasion during a discussion in the the Faculty Lounge I remarked that a certain word was a predicate nominative. The new, young ENGLISH DEPARTMENT CHAIRMAN turned to me and asked "What is a predicative nominative?"

Take my word for it the "traditional" basics are NO longer taught -- at least in the California Public Schools.

[Samai139]

I'm not defending the "younger" generation(s) BUT--isn't it possible that what was important and taught to us is no longer considered quite so important??

For example: Listen to any one of the three news anchors broadcasting on ABC, CBS or NBC or CNN for that matter. Then listen carefully to Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite, or others in that generation. The diction, pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary is strikingly different,( and IMHO a lot better.) But I am in my 60's and still feel that HOW you say something is nearly as important as WHAT you say.

The young clerks/service helpers who can't do basic math are the products of a school curriculum that reflects what was considered important to those rebelling, in many cases, against the "structure" of the 1940's, 1950's and 1960's. I suspect the "curriculum pendulum" will swing back to basics---sooner or later.

[+ Lucky]

Umm, well, it seems to have been a senior moment! Good catch, Hoover!

[Barry]

>Umm, well, it seems to have been a senior moment! Good catch,

>Hoover!

 

And I thought you did that just to see if anyone caught it. }( I didn't Where's my calculator?

 

Barry

[FourAces]

>I'm not defending the "younger" generation(s) BUT--isn't it

>possible that what was important and taught to us is no longer

>considered quite so important??

>For example: Listen to any one of the three news anchors

>broadcasting on ABC, CBS or NBC or CNN for that matter.

 

Hmmm by my count ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN equals 4 unless one of the news anchors is working on two networks

[FourAces]

>

>Tonight I gave the clerk at the bookstore a coupon for 25% off

>on a $29 purchase. She discounted me twenty-five cents...

>

You grumpy cheap old man be happy with your twenty-five cent savings :7

 

Actually I agree fully with your message Lucky. But I wonder if this isn't the case for each generation.

 

A recent experience happened to me just a few days ago at Jack In The Box. My charge was $3.36. I gave the cute boy at the window $5.11 as I wanted to get back 3 quarters and the bill. He actually gave me back $3.00??? I even said I think you made a mistake as he handed me the money and he goes, oh yeah thanks and took back one dollar? I gave up he was so cute I didn't want to hurt his feelings.

[+ Hoover42]

>any one of the three news anchors broadcasting

>on ABC, CBS or NBC or CNN for that matter

 

I think there's an invisible comma in there after "NBC"

...Hoover

[Samai139]

Four Aces~~~

Thanks for reading my posting and correcting my writing. After I posted it, I realised that I should have omitted the "three." Hopefully the meaning got through ) Just goes to show that "old geezers" make mistakes also.

[+ Charlie]

Curiously enough, a friend of mine, who is older than I (Medicare-eligible), educated in California schools in the 1950s, with a Ph.D. in English from a prestigious university, recently asked me what a predicate nominative is. And my partner, who is even older, with a graduate degree in a technical field from an Ivy League university, can't do basic arithmetic without a calculator. It's not just a generational problem. (On the other hand, my mother, a high school drop-out, could quickly add a long column of figures upside down.)

[CT Dick]

Pendulum or not, the USA is currently ranked 22nd in the world in standardized tests given to school children. That puts us behind not just Denmark and Switzerland but also a lot of countries we ought to surpass. ;(

 

Dick

[seattlebottom]

I got all the way through calculus while at the university. Today I can derive and integrate to my heart's content. Algebra? I can do it in my sleep. Addition and Subtraction? I NEED A CALCULATOR!! I think it's just how the mind works. You can only learn so much before you have to "unlearn" the old stuff in order to make room for the new stuff.

 

As for english, to me it's very instinctual. I couldn't for the life of me tell you what a certain rule is or not, but chances are that I know how to use it.:-)