It's the school system

[baybee]

Hey, everybody!
So I used to work at a bakery-cafe here in Florida. This scenario occurred one day around 4 PM, the tail end of a 9-hour shift.
Me= tired, cranky, but still polite cashier
SC= redneck jerkwad with inflated ego

SC: *hemms and haws for 5 minutes before deciding on 13 bagels* "I'll take (complicated and annoying order)."
Me (on autopilot): "That'll be $10.99."
SC: *hands me $11*
Me: *takes it, enters it into cash register, and looks to see the change I owe him*
SC: *receiving his penny* "Woah, you had to look to see what you owed? Wow!" *starts laughing*
Me: *blank stare* "I'm sorry...?"
SC: "Oh no sweetie (sweetie! I am not in any f***ing way your sweetie!) it's not your fault. It's our school systems."
Me: *glares* thinking "You uneducated ass, I happen to attend the best private school in the region AND am 2nd in my class. I guess it never occurred to you that I don't give a s**t about your purchase and am not giving all of my attention to you and your bagels. Clearly the public school system failed in your case, since you lack any semblance of manners!"

Grrr.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

You know, I had someone complaining about how uneducated people were anymore at the register in similar stories. In one instance, they were teachers. Pretty dumb to condemn people's ignorance when it's your job to teach them otherwise.

In the case of the teachers, I just smiled cheerily, and quipped, "you all are teachers, right?"

They didn't smile back. Hm.

And someone calls you sweetie, honey, or baby, call them that right back. It couldn't possibly be a bad name, if they're using it on you, right? Call some big redneck "sweetie" and watch the look on his face. Fun!

[SwanJun]

<snarl>

Those kinds of comments really tick me off.

Why assume that someone working retail is a dim-wit?

Why make stupid comments like that? I don't get it...

SJ

[HawaiianShirts]

That seemed to be the town joke where I grew up. My high school is the only high school within a 20-mile radius. We had to bus some students in from a tiny community that was an hour drive away by freeway.

When I worked at the pizza place, I must have had or heard a conversation like this at least once a day.

(Customer hands over an unusual amount of money or writes an uneven tip on their credit card receipt.)
Employee (like me!): Hmmm... Okay, give me just a second. Math's not exactly my strong suit.
Customer: Did you go to *Local High School*?
Employee: Yeah...
Customer: Then you have a good excuse.

This applied to math, English, and science related problems anyone might have. If you graduated from that school, you had a viable excuse. (And, sadly, it wasn't that far from the truth. I know a few kids who graduated with me who could barely read.) But it was annoying to have the entire town (and other towns in the state) automatically assume that everyone who went to that school was an idiot because of bad education.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I remember this woman saying to her friend while waiting in line, as I struggled to add up someone's change (after they'd changed their mind about the amount of money to give me after I'd put the transaction thru) "Typical shop assistant; dumb as a post."

This really annoyed me, but I said nothing... ironically, I ended up having a really good conversation with this woman's friend about Shakespeare plays and the merits of each... while the rude woman stayed completely silent. Probably cuz it was dawning on her that lack of maths skills does not automatically equal stupidity. As it happens, I can't do maths, but I'm very good at English and all related subjects, which is normal.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

When someone says something like that, you can politely ask them to repeat it. Something like "I'm sorry, ma'am. Could you repeat that? It sounded like you said I was dumb as a post, and I can't imagine that you actually said that. "

It used to really get next to me hearing my coworkers get called stupid by stupid, ignorant people. In our store, we had graphic artists, dean's list students, professionals who just happened to be there temporarily (like me, for instance), somone who designed fashions and organized fashion shows, and a published artist. Intelligent, talented people whose intellect ran circles around the average customer.

So that kind of thing really irked me.

[Hempress]

What is it with jerks at the bagel shop? I worked at one once. I had a customer come in with a friend and order whatever (I don't remember what it was). Anyway, the total came to something like $9.57 (let's say). So the guy gives me a $10 and starts digging through his pockets to find $.02 so I don't have to give him any pennies back. Simple, huh? Well, the customer's friend goes "Don't bother, she'll just get confused and it will take forever." Thanks a lot for insulting my intelligence for no reason, jack ass!

And you know what? Even if I was a complete math idiot (but why would they put me on register if I was anyway?), our registers tell us exactly how much change to give. All I'd have to do is punch in $10.02 and it would tell me that you need $.45 back. Ugh. Stupid jerk.

[MystyGlyttyr]

I always had a trick for dealing with people who questioned my math skills (which are quite abysmal).

Person: *says something about my bad math*
Me: "Huh? Oh, sorry, I wasn't really concentrating. I was debating the 9:3:3:1 ratio of a Punnett square for a dihybrid cross and whether or not there would ever be any cases for alternate ratios while still maintaining Mendel's Law of Segregation. What was the question?"

If you know anything basic about genetic science, you know that I just said something that basically makes no sense, but it's enough to explode the brain of anyone who doesn't know better. They usually get really sheepish and quiet if you continue to mutter to yourself about dominant and recessive alleles while you do their basic math on a calculator.

[Imogene]

Person: *says something about my bad math*
Me: "Huh? Oh, sorry, I wasn't really concentrating. I was debating the 9:3:3:1 ratio of a Punnett square for a dihybrid cross and whether or not there would ever be any cases for alternate ratios while still maintaining Mendel's Law of Segregation. What was the question?"

Wait... Punnett squares are for Biology... which is, in itself, a math... crap, nevermind, go back to your lives, citizens... nothing to see here!
Actually pulled that on my Applied Science teacher when we got into the Biology section last week.
"Are we going to do Punnett Squares? Man, I really enjoyed Punnett Squares!"
The professor got a slightly confused look on his face, as if to say "What's a Punnett square?"

Not as fun as the time I wandered into a local shoe store (Where, you could, assumably, pay a lot less than any regular old shoe store...) and just was browsing for a little, when a clerk asked if she could help me?
"Oh, no, just wanted to borrow a Brannock device..."
She quirked an eyebrow at me (I swear she did!) then had to ask what a Brannock device was?
"That thing you use to measure feet?"
Oh, she'd never heard it called that before, and they're not really for borrowing...
"I meant, I would like to measure my feet really quick... not take it out of the store..."

[kibbles]

How ignorant! You looking at the screen is more than likely an automatic response that you do no matter how much the change. Buddy is the one who isn't too smart if he didn't realize that.

[Bugg]

...or people could realize that as people go thru schooling, and get into more complicated mathematics, simple adition or subtraction becomes a bit difficult, because it's just..too simple. It especially happens when you get through higher calculus.

[Rine]

I've had a few people sigh or ask, "can't you do that in your head?" Or they shake their head when I have to pull out a calculator or pen and paper to work something out. I've always had write out math problems and all the numbers in order to work a problem out but I can't do it in my head. I still count with my fingers. But, hey, I have dyslexia, not much I can do about it.

[powerboy]

I had this one guy come up, and for the life of me, I could not figure out how much change to give back to him, and it was real simple . He then asked me what high school I went to, I told him. He then turned into a smart ass, and pretty much called me stupid. And I had the following conversation

Me
SC

SC: blah blah blah
Me: Why are you making fun of my learning disability?
SC: WTF, I am not making fun
ME: So you are just assuming that I am stupid, because, I had a brain fart?
SC: Walks off embarassed

[Pagan]

Hi, my name is Pagan and I'm a math moron! Strangely enough, experimental statistics make sense to me???

What I hate are people assuming that because you're in retail, you're automatically stupid. Well, if you're so much more intelligent, let's just drop ya in here with no training and see how ya do!

Seriously, please don't assume, you know what it makes of you and me. I've got a BA, a BS, a minor, (all at the same time, thank you) been on the Dean's List, graduated with a 3.0....and many other things that someone who is supposedly stupid could not do. I get really angry when I'm talked to like I'm stupid. I know I'm not stupid. And while we're at it, I'm not "honey, sweetie, baby doll"!
Especially from women that are 10 years younger than me (I'm 36, but I still get carded!)

[Mixed Bag]

"Oh, no, just wanted to borrow a Brannock device..."
She quirked an eyebrow at me (I swear she did!) then had to ask what a Brannock device was?
"That thing you use to measure feet?"

I only knew that because of the time my younger brother (in junior high at the time?) was bored as we were buying shoes and so asked the clerk who invented it. Kids think you know everything!