They must not teach math in school anymore

[trunks2k]

Some of my co-workers would accidentally enter the wrong amount tendered, and they would be lost as to what change to give back.

It was actually kind of sad.

When I was cashiering I used to always calculate the change in my head before I put it into the register, and often would have the change ready before I even looked at the register to verify I was right. Except that when you do that with a hundred customers over the course of the day the exhaustion gets to ya and ya can't think straight. So it would be inevitable that I'd punch in the wrong amount and I'd have a tough time doing the change, which would always bring comments from people about how I don't know simple math. Screw you, I know how ot do it, I do it all day, I'm just exhausted.

[erik316wttn]

I was good at math until they started putting letters in it.

[Rapscallion]

Speaking of teachers--is there a board where people talk about school experiences?

Well, I took the initiative and typed in www.schoolsucks.com.

My, but I'm not used to adverts. It aparently started - according to the forums - back in June or July 2005. It's got about two dozen posts or so. I'm a touch concerned that he's running phpBB2 - if that's not updated then there are plenty of hacks around for it.

I wouldn't overly recommend it - doesn't look very busy. Still, it may pique your interest.

Rapscallion

[Rapscallion]

Some of my co-workers would accidentally enter the wrong amount tendered, and they would be lost as to what change to give back.

It was actually kind of sad.

Oh, the amount of times I went to the bakery on our parade and had the total figured out in my head long before some of the Saturday staff knew the result... Oh, and let's not forget that they frequently miscalculated the change.

Considering I wasn't using a calculator or pen, and they were doing either of those and still making mistakes, it was frightning.

Rapscallion

[Jester]

Lol. Math is like a second language for me that I speak fluently.

I wouldn't go that far, but I often describe myself as having a calculator for a brain. As I often tell people, a lot of times I know the answer before I really know HOW I know the answer. First great example of this: one time in my fourth grade class, my teacher said something (not teaching a lesson) about there only being 16 of the 25 kids there, wondering what the percent was. "Sixty four percent!" I blurted out. [Unlike today, in grade school I was an introvert--when I wasn't being the class clown.] Sixteen pairs of eyes turned towards me in shock (the other 15 kids plus the teacher). The teacher actually did the math on the calculator, and was shocked to see that "Jester is right!" Not bad for a nine year old! Oh, almost forgot the time my sister brought home her fifth grade math homework and had me do it--and I was in first grade. Her teacher was shocked when she told him...since I nailed it all.

Now, I don't remember having a calculator till college, and even then I don't remmeber having a graphing calculator. I took trig and calc and geo in high school, but due to my major, only had to take college algebra, econ, and stats. Heck, in college alg, I actually stopped going to class, missed all the quizzes, lost 10% of my grade off the top...and still got a B without trying.

Heck, on my vacation just past, I was figuring out driving times to places based upon my speed, and recalculating it as speed rose or fell from changing speed limits. Naturally that is easy when you are going 60 mph, but a bit different as your speed gets away from the mile a minute mark. Amusingly, the other day at the grocery store, while in line, estimated the cost of my groceries to my roommate at $80. The cashier was a bit surprised when the total was $80.66. (I was just estimating, had not done the math in my head or anything.)

So math has always come easy for me, but I realize it is not that way for others. And then, there are times when my brain just completely fries. My nieces needed help with their math, and this was stuff I did....but forever and a lifetime ago. I had to reread her whole chapter to remember it. And of course yesterday at the bar, I was wondering why I had so much money left after I took out what I owed the house....and then realized after a lot of headbanging that somehow, while subtracting the credit sales from the total sales, I had managed to make 5-3=1. So of course I was $100 off.

So much for the Calculator for a Brain, huh?

And I still get looks from cashiers when I hand them a weird amount because I have already calculated in my head the change I want back.

[Tria]

I was good at math until they started putting letters in it.

AMEN! I know all about that.

[Imogene]

*story about being a calculator for a brain*

I used to scare the managers at Chesterfield. They'd be on one register, grabbing stats for the sales that day, and label them for me (ie. *this* is our net sales, *this* is our number of transactions. So... *grab the mini calculator* What's our PT?) and I'd spit out an answer before they even typed it on the calculator, while I was busy ringing out a customer. I'd usually tack on "...assuming I did the operations right... I can never remember which one is divided by the other... so, it's either *this number* or *that number*..." and then just stare at them expectantly until they confirm one was right.
"How'd you do that, Juwl?"
M: "Math is your friend, my man."

[rdp78]

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.

Either that or the cashier isn't really that good of a cashier to begin with. I'm sort of appalled that someone can't even figure out that if a total is like $5.03 and you give them 10 dollars with 3 pennies that means you get 5 bucks back. Now how hard is that to figure out even you're not that good in math it can't be to hard.

[Dragon_Dreamer]

Raps, that's a free term papers site... people using it could get expelled...

[Primer]

Word to the wise, NEVER take a college math class at 7:30 in the morning. Bad, bad juju.

Want to know what's worse? Teaching a college math class at that time of the morning! Every time the department begs me to teach a class that early, I cave in. Every time, I swear never again.

[One-Fang]

I just thought I'd pipe in with what my dad was telling me yesterday. Apparently our high schoolers are failing maths, and the paper listed some of the questions they're continually getting wrong in the exams.

Questions such as:

Add one half and one quarter. What is the result?

If a $4.25 item is 10% off, what is the amount of the discount on this item?

What number can be added to 8 and subtracted from 8 and still leave 8?

[trunks2k]

What number can be added to 8 and subtracted from 8 and still leave 8?

This one is poorly worded. So I can understand why it might confuse some students.
When I read it, I'm tempted to read it as 8+x-x=8, rather than 8+x=8 and 8-x=8 I had to read it a couple times to see what it was really asking.

[One-Fang]

Yeah sorry, it might have been 'or' not 'and'. It's a third hand story now.

[CrazedClerk]

The answer is 0.

8+0=8
8-0=8

[Bella_Vixen]

You somehow know that math isn't your subject when you fail it...in 3rd grade.

OK I admit it was a bit my fault, but the teacher refused to help me at all. I'd be in hysterics trying to do my homework at night.

Funny thing is, when I was in 8th grade, one of the "smart math" teachers (high agebra or geometry or calc or something) got me involved where you take 4 random (1 digit) numbers and by adding, subtracting, multiplying, and/or dividing, make the answer come out to 24. I kicked ass in that game, so much so that she wanted me to go to the regional something-or-other for it, but I refused. Every once in a great while, just out of the blue, I still do it in my head.

I couldn't do most math to save my life, but I was beyond smart enough to take biology as a freshman and get A's. ::