This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Agile Buzz
by James Robertson.
Original Post: Can anyone do math?
Feed Title: Cincom Smalltalk Blog - Smalltalk with Rants
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Feed Description: James Robertson comments on Cincom Smalltalk, the Smalltalk development community, and IT trends and issues in general.
So I'm out at a lunch place with my wife this afternoon - we bought a mocha and a latte, and sat down. Then they tell us, "Sorry, the machine's down. Is regular coffee ok?". I said sure, but asked for a refund of the difference. That's where the trouble started. The clerk stands at the register and looks baffled - he has no idea how to even approach the problem. A girl comes over and tells him to subtract $3.17 from $7.00. He writes the numbers down, buts stops - he has no idea how to actually subtract them. The girl looks at the numbers, realizes that the subtraction involves carrying, and gets baffled. They both look at me for help. Sigh. I tell them to give me $3.83. They are relieved that someone knew the answer, and gave me my change.
Here's the real question - if I had made a mistake, or given them the wrong answer purposely, would they have noticed? I was just stunned - not so much by the inability to do the problem mentally - neither of them could do it on paper!. What are they teaching in schools these days anyway?
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