They must not teach math in school anymore

[erik316wttn]

More and more often I have the following exchange with kids who are old enough to know basic math and who should be old enough to count money.

Me: (after ringing up their items) Ok, your total is (total)

Them: (digs around in pocket, hands me very crumpled wad of bills.)

Me: (Rolls eyes, counts out what I need, hands the rest back)

Or, I'll have an exchange like this:

Me: Ok, your total is (total)

Kid: (Hands me wad of bills and change.)

Me: (I count it out) Ok, you're $2.37 short. You got any more money on you?

Kid: (Hands me some more change)

Me: You're still short $1.62. Have you got anything else?

Kid: *blink*

Me: (getting annoyed now) Look, how much money do you have with you?

Kid: (empties the rest of his pockets onto the belt)

Me: You're still short. You'll have to put something back

Kid: *blink*

Me: AAAARRRRGGGHHH!!

[kerrisan]

The first exchange might just be laziness, but the second one . . . I can see how that would get frustrating!

[norrina]

I am very careful that if I am going to pay with some *odd* amount, I hand over all the money at once, for the cashier's convenience. I realize that some people are better at math than others, and when you have been dealing with money all day, even the best mathematicians can get frazzled. Several times now though, I have given over something like $20.03 for a $16.43 bill, and had to defend my reasoning. The clerk will try to give me back my $.03, I'll tell them I meant to give over $.03, they'll tell me the $20.00 is enough, I'll say that I know, but I want $.60 back, not $.57, they'll tell me the $20.03 is too much... Eventually I'll ask them to just enter what I gave them into the till and give me back what the till tells them to, I promise, it will be what I want.

It would appear that the state of education in generally is declining.

[Imogene]

I hated it when people would hand me a wad of crumpled bills. I'd let it sit on the counter while I started at it, willing it to form itself into a neat little pile. That usually never worked.
Then I'd look at the customer a bit. Not working either...
Then I'd grab the bills and straighten them by hand as best I could. This step usually worked...
If that didn't work, I'd just leave them there.

[Becks]

Several times now though, I have given over something like $20.03 for a $16.43 bill, and had to defend my reasoning. The clerk will try to give me back my $.03, I'll tell them I meant to give over $.03, they'll tell me the $20.00 is enough, I'll say that I know, but I want $.60 back, not $.57, they'll tell me the $20.03 is too much... Eventually I'll ask them to just enter what I gave them into the till and give me back what the till tells them to, I promise, it will be what I want.

Oh, that happens to me, too. I just want to tell them that if I'm handing them pennies, I obviously have enough of them, and why would I need even MORE?

Trust me, I was a cashier, it'll all make sense in the end.

[dragonflygrrl]

You know, I don't mind the crumpled bills so very much, it's the wet ones that I can't deal with. I think we all know it's been pretty darned hot in the US the last month or so, and I understand getting sweaty in the heat. But never in my life have I handed wet, sweaty, warm money to anyone. That is because I went ahead, took the plunge, and purchased a wallet. These people, though, will come into my store, purchase an item, and then fish out these dank, odiferous dollars out of their pants pockets, and on several memorable occassions a bra, and then hold it out like I have any intention of touching that! How gross is that! What possesses people?

[theredbaron47]

it's the wet ones that I can't deal with. I think we all know it's been pretty darned hot in the US the last month or so, and I understand getting sweaty in the heat. But never in my life have I handed wet, sweaty, warm money to anyone. That is because I went ahead, took the plunge, and purchased a wallet. These people, though, will come into my store, purchase an item, and then fish out these dank, odiferous dollars out of their pants pockets, and on several memorable occassions a bra, and then hold it out like I have any intention of touching that! How gross is that! What possesses people?

Now, here is the question. If I were in your position, and a customer fished out a wet, sweaty bill from their bra, I would tell them to put it on the counter, making sure not to touch it, then Lysol it with them watching, not hesitating at all.

Would anyone else do that?

[NightAngel]

Actually, I don't think they do teach math in school anymore. When last my son was in public school here the teacher wanted the students to have calculators. I refused to buy him one. The teacher got upset with me and told me that it was "required".

I told him that I "required" my son to use his brain, a pencil and some scratch paper.

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

Now, here is the question. If I were in your position, and a customer fished out a wet, sweaty bill from their bra, I would tell them to put it on the counter, making sure not to touch it, then Lysol it with them watching, not hesitating at all.

Would anyone else do that?

I have already done that. In my case it was a wad of 100's pulled out of the waistband of a costomer's shorts. When it hit the table, it made a rather disgusting "splat" noise.

I didn't even blink. I grabbed my gloves I use for dealing with computers owned by 30 pack-a-day chain smokers, spread them out and lysoled the smeg out of them.

[Greenday]

I guess they stopped teaching math right after I finished school. Hell, when I was back in middle school, there would be tests where no calculators would be allowed. I didn't even bother getting one until I was in the 7th grade. There was no math hard enough until then that I'd really NEED a calculator. Even in high school, the only times I'd need my calculator was when I needed to graph something, when I needed to plot a trend, or to calculate very very small or very very large numbers. A lot of the time, a calculator just slows me down.

[trunks2k]

I guess they stopped teaching math right after I finished school. Hell, when I was back in middle school, there would be tests where no calculators would be allowed. I didn't even bother getting one until I was in the 7th grade. There was no math hard enough until then that I'd really NEED a calculator.

I didn't start using a calculator until 8th grade. By then it was assumed we knew how to do basic addition, multiplication, etc. So rather than spend the time trying to calculate 88 x 7 for an algebra equation, we could just use the calculator, since we knew how to do it, but it was just a waste of time. I can function daily life without a calculator, but if I'm doing stuff I did in Calc IV, I need one. I mean really, who wants to sit and figure out sin(.292cos(.1029tan(1.2)))?

[Tria]

I mean really, who wants to sit and figure out sin(.292cos(.1029tan(1.2)))?

I can't even read that....

[LostMyMind]

you young'ins :shake the cane: you don't need a fancy calculator unless you doing calculus.

[Greenday]

Lol. Math is like a second language for me that I speak fluently. My first year of college, I'm going to be taking Calc I and Calc II. I'm excited about it. Most people I know grimace about hearing that. Derivatives, anti-derivatives, sin, cosin, tangent, cotangent, secant, cosecant. All cake for me. I went into my senior year of high school taking AP Calc. My teacher had jury duty for nearly a month so for some reason or another I couldn't do the work. I decided to drop it and went down to Calc Honors. It was a breeze. Most of the first semester I pretended to be looking at notes and slept, and still got my 100s. Most of the class would be struggling and myself and a couple other people would instantly know how to figure out a certain problem without the teacher actually explaining the steps. To me, a lot of stuff would seem like, "How could you not understand this and be in HONORS calc?" But I realized that math was such a strength for me, it isn't the same for everyone. While I excel at math, I suck at writing essays and memorizing literature.

But back on topic, it does annoy me when people, even grown people, short change me, and try to argue with me about it, even though the math is so simple they teach it in 1st grade.

[trunks2k]

I can't even read that....

sin(.292cos(.1029tan(1.2)))

sine of [ .292 multiplied by the cosine of [.1029 multiplied by the tangent of 1.2]]

(brackets inserted to indicate what I'm taking the sine and cosine of.

It's basically a worthless equation that somewhat resembles stuff I saw in Calculus. What is fun is to get a graphing calculator, put it in radian mode, and stick some Xs into the above equation and graph it. It makes pretty pictures.