I had to post this because it’s something that has bothered me for a while now and I had yet another reminder of it on my recent trip.
I preface it by saying I get that I am older, a different generation from many who scroll these feeds, but I don’t think what I have to say on this is a generational thing. I think it’s a real issue that needs to be addressed.
This is an issue I have gone through with my own child as well.
We stopped to eat at Taco Bell on the way home and ordered our meal. It came up to $12.26. I look in my wallet and find I have a $20 and a few ones along with the change. I had the girl behind the counter The $20, two $1 bills, and 26 cents, which totals $22.26.
She looks at me like I’m nuts and says, “It’s only $12.26 ma’am. I don’t need all this.” And she tries to had me back the two ones and the change. I politely say, “I know that, but this way you can give me a simple $10 bill as change and not several bills and change.”
She stares blankly for a moment and looks back at me and I reassure her it’s what I want before she finally keys in what I gave her in the cash register. When the drawer pops open her eyes widen and she kinda goes, “oh” and hands me back a $10 bill.
It was very clear that this girl had no skills whatsoever to make that kind of logical reasoning. None. Zero. Zip.
Example #2.
Several months before this I’m at McDonalds (I eat out way too much!) and the total is $19.03. I hand the girl a $20 and say to hang on because I was sure I had three pennies. Well of course she didn’t listen and had already keyed in the $20 bill and the register drawer popped open. So when I hand her the three pennies. She stares.
She looks back and forth between the pennies and the display on the register and she was completely baffled.
Because the registered told her I should get 97 cents back but what does she do with the pennies? I may as well have asked her to solve a calculus problem.
I told her that she could just give me a dollar back and she didn’t even seem to understand it. Finally a manager came over and asked what was going on and I explained it and the woman shook her head and handed me a dollar from the register and closed it before walking away.
I could go on. There are other times I’ve had similar experiences, but these two always stuck in my mind. I cannot fathom that anyone old enough to work, with basic high school education, that is unable to do such basic math.
Children today are not taught basic logic and reasoning skills. Particularly when it comes to math. They are taught to use a calculator. They are never taught the reasoning behind it, how it works, or what the concept is. Only how to push buttons and get an answer.
This is such a disturbing trend to me. And like I said, I’ve had my own fight with this with my own child. I’ve seen it first hand and he sees absolutely nothing wrong with it.
When I was in school *cue the old fart voice* we were not allowed to use a calculator until we had proven that we mastered the very skills the calculator was used for. Basic addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
Once that was achieved then we were allowed to use them. Same went for scientific calculators, the next step up. We had to learn how to convert scientific notation on paper before we could press the buttons on the calculator to magically convert the numbers. We had to learn how to calculate square roots and how to square numbers on paper.
And then master graphing geometry before the graphing calculator and trigonometry and so on.
Now it’s just handed to them they are they taught to plug in a number and boom, there ya go. That’s it.
I have asked my son what he does when he can’t figure something out and his response is simply, “I’ll just used a calculator”. And I go a step further and say what if it’s broke and he just responds, “It’s solar. I’ll go outside.” (Yes, he’s that snarky.) The point is completely lost on him and he sees nothing wrong with it whatsoever.
Basic skills are being lost in favor of technology and that is scary to me. Technology is meant to aid us, to help us. Not to cripple us. Not to make us dependent to it. To become slaves to it.
It’s a frightening trend. One that I sincerely hope changes soon.
