Mental Arithmetic

[Dave at kelton]

For someone who got kicked out of A level maths I never regarded myself as being brilliant at it but the lack of mental arithmetic skills of till staff frightens me. When I worked in the butchers you either jotted it down on the paper or did it in your head. Three times in the last week I have been left astounded.

Please may I have a book of stamps..sorry only have five in the book…66p each but the till won’t ring them up separately so don’t know how much they are…err £3.30

I just picked this up in the bargains basket 50% off ticket price £7.50… how do I work that out it’s not barcoded err divide by two it’s £3.75

Here is £20 sorry I don’t have change and it’s £5.90. Till’s not working I will have to work out the change  err it is £14.10

What the hell are people being taught in school? I don’t blame any individual who is not numerate but three times in a week is too much of a coincidence and points to lack of basic education. 

[TIGHTCHOKE]

2 minutes ago, Dave at kelton said:

What the hell are people being taught in school? I don’t blame any individual who is not numerate but three times in a week is too much of a coincidence and points to lack of basic education. 

Not much for everyday things! Lots of coding and IT stuff that only a few will use, it is everywhere.   

[Yellow Bear]

12 minutes ago, Dave at kelton said:

What the hell are people being taught in school? I don’t blame any individual who is not numerate but three times in a week is too much of a coincidence and points to lack of basic education. 

It started just after Thatcher but hit with a vengeance under B Liar when no child was to be allowed to fail  -  Daughter was doing Teacher training just after he got in and was taught not to set questions that a child could get wrong as it effected their "self esteem".  The goal posts were moved so all performed equally.

[old man]

15 minutes ago, Dave at kelton said:

For someone who got kicked out of A level maths I never regarded myself as being brilliant at it but the lack of mental arithmetic skills of till staff frightens me. When I worked in the butchers you either jotted it down on the paper or did it in your head. Three times in the last week I have been left astounded.

Please may I have a book of stamps..sorry only have five in the book…66p each but the till won’t ring them up separately so don’t know how much they are…err £3.30

I just picked this up in the bargains basket 50% off ticket price £7.50… how do I work that out it’s not barcoded err divide by two it’s £3.75

Here is £20 sorry I don’t have change and it’s £5.90. Till’s not working I will have to work out the change  err it is £14.10

What the hell are people being taught in school? I don’t blame any individual who is not numerate but three times in a week is too much of a coincidence and points to lack of basic education. 

Education is maybe not to Educate the masses just tick boxes, the activity of which is construed by most to equate to progress?

The politicos want a huge flock of ill educated, confused people they can fleece and manipulate to fulfil their current aim?

[discobob]

Sorry - reminds me of this from Dilbert

 

[welsh1]

In school i was always in the lower grade for maths, i honestly thought i was a bit thick when it came to the subject, and when i left i did a year in a technical college where the old man doing the maths lessons was a revelation who explained and helped and i ended up getting 98% in the final exam, i then joined the Army, who also showed me that maths wasn't a dread, and doing bridge calcs and other stuff involved in engineering became clear.

I now check engineering reports, Pi r squared is used daily as are other calcs that i dreaded in school., i am a scribbler who jots a lot of it down rather than work it in my head, i find i can refer back if it's not looking right.

It turns out i wasn't thick, i just had very bad teachers.

[holloway]

8 minutes ago, welsh1 said:

In school i was always in the lower grade for maths, i honestly thought i was a bit thick when it came to the subject, and when i left i did a year in a technical college where the old man doing the maths lessons was a revelation who explained and helped and i ended up getting 98% in the final exam, i then joined the Army, who also showed me that maths wasn't a dread, and doing bridge calcs and other stuff involved in engineering became clear.

I now check engineering reports, Pi r squared is used daily as are other calcs that i dreaded in school., i am a scribbler who jots a lot of it down rather than work it in my head, i find i can refer back if it's not looking right.

It turns out i wasn't thick, i just had very bad teachers.

I think this is true for many and also we all learn at different speeds.

[marsh man]

My ( Secondry Modern ) school in the erly 60s had three class streams , A , B , and C , the A stream were the so called brainy ones and they had home work to do outside school hours and in maths the school tried to learn those kids Algerbra , I was in the B stream and we had no home work , not that I wanted any and the English and maths were basic , apart from sport I had very little interest in the rest of the lessons and I can well remember standing outside the class room for the whole of the term when we had R I ( Religious Instructions ) this was because I was yarning away when the teacher was trying to teach me about something I had very little interest in . reaching 15 in November I left school at Christmas and started work the day after Boxing Day and up to the day I retired I had never been out of work , I could read and write ( up to a point ) and add up , everything else was self taught , coming from fairly poor beginnings I have done reasonbly well , not rich by any means but got me own house , retired early and don't owe no one a penny .

Now back to the so called educated ones , I remember a couple of years ago I went into Mc Donalds to get two ice creams for my two grand daughters , told the girl what I wanted and gave her a fiver , at the time they should had come to just under £3.00 , she gave me my change it was less a quid , I told her she had made a mistake as I only wanted two and she had charged me for three , well this is where the fun started , the till couldn't help her and she was clueless , she kept giving me some small change and I said sorry it still isn't right , I ended up with a hand full of one pence and two pence pieces and in the end she was asking me if that was enough change , as she was a nice young friendly girl I told her yes that was near enough and gave it all back to her and told here she can put it in the charity box , by then my two grand kids had finished off the ice creams and ready to leave 

[Sprinter]

Try this in McDonald's. If your order comes to £5.90 (or something like that you offer £10.90 or £20.90 so you don't get a pocket full of change back. Invariably you get the 90p back followed by a handful of shrapnel anyway cos they can't work it out.....

[30-6]

I went to Grammar school in the early 70's. In those days teachers hit you first and asked questions second.

When the class was asked " do you understand what I just said ", everybody said yes miss or yes sir, because if they said no they were ridiculed.

[Centrepin]

My Granddaughters secondary school issues computer printouts of the lesson for them to follow.

They are then given "answers" in another print out and mark themselves in green pen.

Once a term the so called teacher collects the books in and writes comments in, in red.

Why bother to employ teachers?

She is now home educated and learning at a phenomenal rate, far in advance of her year 8 group.

No expensive uneeded uniform either.

4 minutes ago, 30-6 said:

I went to Grammar school in the early 70's. In those days teachers hit you first and asked questions second.

When the class was asked " do you understand what I just said ", everybody said yes miss or yes sir, because if they said no they were ridiculed.

That sounds like you and I had the same education.

One teacher kept 3 plimsols on his desk, Tom, **** and Harry. He took turns hitting you with each.

Another walked round slamming his cane down on your desk.

[welsh1]

27 minutes ago, Centrepin said:

My Granddaughters secondary school issues computer printouts of the lesson for them to follow.

They are then given "answers" in another print out and mark themselves in green pen.

Once a term the so called teacher collects the books in and writes comments in, in red.

Why bother to employ teachers?

She is now home educated and learning at a phenomenal rate, far in advance of her year 8 group.

No expensive uneeded uniform either.

That sounds like you and I had the same education.

One teacher kept 3 plimsols on his desk, Tom, **** and Harry. He took turns hitting you with each.

Another walked round slamming his cane down on your desk.

My teacher Mr Cole in Junior school, ginger haired bear of a man, he had a pin and plate in one of his elbows which kept his arm locked in an L shape,from an injury serving in Korea.
With his good arm he could lauch the blackboard duster with extreme accuracy and speed i had the bumps on the head to prove it, and one time when i argued with the class bully he whacked me with his locked arm and launched me over a desk. He didn't suffer fools.

Some days he appeared dishevelled, tie slightly undone and more grumpy than normal, looking back he probably had PTSD and i am sure he was a functioning alcoholic.

 

[daveboy]

I went for a job 40 years ago and was the only one out of 6 that could knock 10% off in my head.

[GingerCat]

My dad was a director of a bank, he dealt with mortgages. His first question in an interview, an icebreaker if you like was whats 10% of 100. 

Only 1 person ever got it right. She went from being his secretary to a ceo, still sends him Xmas cards 20+ years after he retired. 

[marsh man]

2 hours ago, welsh1 said:

My teacher Mr Cole in Junior school, ginger haired bear of a man, he had a pin and plate in one of his elbows which kept his arm locked in an L shape,from an injury serving in Korea.
With his good arm he could lauch the blackboard duster with extreme accuracy and speed i had the bumps on the head to prove it, and one time when i argued with the class bully he whacked me with his locked arm and launched me over a desk. He didn't suffer fools.

Some days he appeared dishevelled, tie slightly undone and more grumpy than normal, looking back he probably had PTSD and i am sure he was a functioning alcoholic.

 

Some of our teachers seemed at the time very victorian and got delight of whacking you with a slipper or a cane , if I thought I had deserved it then so be it and I had to grin and bear it . but I remember the time when one of the art teachers who also done the sports lesson chucked a hard cricket ball at me while sitting down because I wasn't paying much attention and it missed me by inches , I had no more to do than picked it up and chucked it back as hard as I could and it hit the black board a couple of feet from where he stood , the kids in the class room burst out laughing and he did not see the funny side , he came marching over and grabbed me by the arm and off we went to the head masters office , I was fully expecting his long whippy cane coming out of the cubboard but after talking to the teacher he asked me why I chucked the ball back , I told him if he hadn't chucked it at me in the first place then there would had been no need to had chucked it back , after a few words with the teacher he sent me back to the class and nothing else was said about the matter , we were not that rough but we had to learn at a early stage in life that we mustn't be walked over and this is how it had been right up to the present day .     MM

[TIGHTCHOKE]

4 hours ago, Sprinter said:

Try this in McDonald's. If your order comes to £5.90 (or something like that you offer £10.90 or £20.90 so you don't get a pocket full of change back. Invariably you get the 90p back followed by a handful of shrapnel anyway cos they can't work it out.....

Or, like the massive majority, pay by card so you get no change!  

[Bigbob]

Seen a young lassy at a till use a calculator LOL 

[Dougy]

The problem is everything is done for people nowadays. 

I played darts from around 10 years and reached a pretty decent level. High checkouts of max 170's on the odd occasion 167 161 and many more. Seeing the scorers add up the numbers abd start to chalk off, I'd pass the cloth and tell them to wipe the board.  And the same goes for marking, you could add up subtract and chalk up before they got the darts out. 

I found it a fantastic way to learn mental arithmetic.

 

[old man]

6 hours ago, Dougy said:

The problem is everything is done for people nowadays. 

I played darts from around 10 years and reached a pretty decent level. High checkouts of max 170's on the odd occasion 167 161 and many more. Seeing the scorers add up the numbers abd start to chalk off, I'd pass the cloth and tell them to wipe the board.  And the same goes for marking, you could add up subtract and chalk up before they got the darts out. 

I found it a fantastic way to learn mental arithmetic.

 

So did I, it took about 6 weeks for me to go from zero to tip top.

All seemingly gone now due to lack of use?

[Genghis]

They say a lot of younger people these days can’t read a clock.

 

On the other hand, in my last job there were a few of the older generation who had no idea how to tell the time off a 24 hour clock. When I would write 15:30 on a piece of paper they would read it as half past 5.

[billytheghillie]

8 hours ago, Dougy said:

The problem is everything is done for people nowadays. 

I played darts from around 10 years and reached a pretty decent level. High checkouts of max 170's on the odd occasion 167 161 and many more. Seeing the scorers add up the numbers abd start to chalk off, I'd pass the cloth and tell them to wipe the board.  And the same goes for marking, you could add up subtract and chalk up before they got the darts out. 

I found it a fantastic way to learn mental arithmetic.

 

Yes a great way to learn arithmetic, and also how to sink a dozen pints and smoke 20 fags 👍

[Dougy]

39 minutes ago, billytheghillie said:

Yes a great way to learn arithmetic, and also how to sink a dozen pints and smoke 20 fags 👍

 A game of 501 i'd down 2 pints and be out in 15 or less, best of 3 i'd average 10 pints a night easy, and play for a gallon after. 

 

Glad i cant do it now, i dont think i'd reach pension  age if I was still playing 5 nights a week. 

[billytheghillie]

Aye ive seen the day, but as you say you wouldnt reach OAP age, infact havent been in a pub for about 10  years, and i dont miss it.

[WalkedUp]

There is always someone worse at maths and arithmetic than you are, and people who are better. 

Edited September 15, 2023 by WalkedUp

[Centrepin]

9 hours ago, WalkedUp said:

There is always someone worse at maths and arithmetic than you are, and people who are better. 

Isn't that true though of every skill we have, everything is perishable if not practiced regularly.