If you can't add, keep the change
By TAMMY R. LAWSONThis, my friends, is a true story:
A few years ago on vacation, I went to a drive-through restaurant in Texas and my order totaled $2.76. At the window, I gave a cashier $3 and one penny - that way, a single quarter would be handed back instead of loose change.
He stood there for about 15 seconds, blankly staring at the money in his hand and exclaimed "I can't take this," proceeding to offer the entire amount back to me.
I then had my own moment of awe and asked why to which he repeated himself. However, I was still befuddled and it must have shown on my face.
"The register's broken," he said, without blinking an eye. "It won't tell me the change and I don't know how to do this, so just keep it."
The adolescent, who looked to be around 17 years old, was unable to configure the final result in his head.
Exiting the parking lot, I was absolutely shocked and felt immense pity for him.
Then several months later in the midst of a school year (not in Iowa), my seventh-grade son was heading out the door one morning and asked where a calculator might be located. I inquired as to the reason and he said, "They let us use them in junior high math."
I was totally floored by such notion and called his teacher about using the mechanical helper in class, only to be told "We allow the students to use calculators on the easier problems while teaching them the more complex mathematics."
Did you also catch that oxymoronic statement?
Trust me when I say a feeling of panic overtook me, followed by a vision of my son standing in place of the teenager who handed me tacos.
And let me clarify that I am talking about math skills and not restaurants - my point here is numbers.
It doesn't matter where you work if one cannot handle the simplicity of add and subtract.
Now, I am no Einstein - Algebra and Calculus personally made me ill, but I was at least able to decipher when out for my own school lunch without a calculator in tow. On top of that, cash registers didn't used to give you the cash-back sum, so people HAD to grasp these skills.
No child left behind? Please.
Too many of our country's youth are graduating without the common mathematical sense necessary to compete in this economy, especially one that is centered around growing technology - if you don't believe me, look up the U.S. statistics.
And I am also not insinuating that teachers aren't trying - most are while having to become babysitters in the process.
But something is definitely out of sync.
Maybe it wouldn't hurt if parents sat down with their children and a deck of flash cards instead of a Hot Pocket, just to see what's going on in their minds. After all, they are the responsible ones.
P.S. For the record, I let the young adult in Austin keep my change in hopes of starting a math-tutoring fund because that was excruciating to watch.
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Reporter Tammy R. Lawson is a Monday columnist for the Times-Republican. The views expressed in this column are personal views of the writer and don't necessarily reflect the views of the T-R. Contact Tammy R. Lawson at 641-753-6611 or tlawson@timesrepublican.com
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GradStudent
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11-03-09 7:48 AM
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You must all realize that this is the bottom of the totem pole in the service industry. People work behind counters at registers because they are easily trained monkeys. When the register fails, they fail because the system was not meant to deal with failure. It all stems from Fredrick Winslow Taylor's standardization of labor which basically established the means by which any average laborer is trained to do any job which has already been prepared to be done by anyone off the streets. These people are trained to do the job, not trained to deal with things that do not fall into order. What is the source for all of this? Faster and more efficient production that won't cost companies excess money. God bless scientific management!
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iamtammy
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11-02-09 11:25 PM
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Johnson, in NC, charcoal was 2 bucks a bag, buy 1/get 1 free. My aunt got 2 bags, and since the one was free, instead of $4, she was to pay $2. The woman charged her $4 anyway, and when my aunt said "No, these are buy 1/get 1 free," the woman opened the register and handed her 2 bucks while my aunt was still holding the $2 she had yet to pay. My aunt spent 5 minutes explaining it to her, and the woman called the manager over~ aunty explained to him that the cashier was confused, and HE opened the register again, and handed my aunt 2 MORE bucks, while she was still standing there holding the original 2 bucks, AND the 2 the cashier handed her. We could not believe it. I was OK until my aunt looked over at me and said, "You wanna try it?"
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Johnson
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11-02-09 10:26 PM
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I went to Kohl’s after Christmas sale a few years ago. I stood in line at the checkout behind a young couple with a baby. The clerk asked the man if he wanted a 2nd pair of pants because they were buy one-get the 2nd at half off. The pants cost $29.99. He looked befuddled and asked his wife how much the 2nd pair would cost. She didn’t know and asked the checkout girl. The checkout girl opened the cash register and took out a calculator. I was in shock – feeling like I had just landed in the Twilight Zone. I went home and told my wife, “Don’t count on Social Security, they’ll never let us retire, there is no one out there to replace us.” Where did this happen – Minnesota – which likes to brag about its ACT scores!
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iamtammy
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11-02-09 10:26 PM
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Billbo~ serious? Yowee. That overtakes my register incident.
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Billbo
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11-02-09 9:55 PM
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I experienced something similar from a youth behind the counter of a shoe store. When I told her I needed shoe laces that were two feet long, she turned to me with a smirk on her face and said, "These are measured in INCHES." I became frightened for her and the country in general.
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iamtammy
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11-02-09 2:51 PM
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What's sad is, the older I get, the more I question my own math skills. Either too much of life on the brain or too many dry martinis could have been a contributing factor. And I still hate Algebra.
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Butler
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11-02-09 1:31 PM
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This was Texas Tammy, where the "No Child Left Behind" originated. I can picture our former President saying the same thing if he were faced with this problem.
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iamtammy
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11-02-09 10:25 AM
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thank you grad~ yeah, same here on the registers, and you had to have your stuff together - one tiny miscalculation, your drawer would be short and the right employer took it out of your pay.
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GradStudent
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11-02-09 5:31 AM
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Great job Tammy! I love to see people actually acknowledge publicly that teachers are now babysitters. Finally! I think basic math skills left society when checkbook balancing did. When I worked at a grocery store in high school I had to do inventory every week and used so much adding, subtracting, and multiplying that I think I learned more there than in any math class. Good article!
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