Humans are fast learners. We learn what our environments demand we learn,
within some variation, of course. In my part time job slinging beer, we don't
expect employees to be able to subtract numbers like 13.54 from 20. The Point
of Sale (PoS, funnily also an initialism for another common phrase) does the
math for you. However, at my particular gig, we don't deal in dimes, nickels,
or pennies. So the PoS does some math, I look at the number, then I have to
round up or down, in favor or detriment to the customer or the house, such that
we only trade with quarters and up. The objective of the game is to reach the
end of the evening with the electronic till count within $0.25 of the actual
till contents.
To my mind, this iterated arithmetic game is WAY more fun than the simple game
of adding or subtracting numbers, at which I'm an abject failure. But I'm
pretty good at the long game of knowing how many times to short the customer
versus shorting the house such that the PoS' final count is within a quarter of
the actual count.
You're always gonna fail to teach people skills they don't need to learn. If
you want them to learn something, engineer the environment, not the person.
On 8/8/24 06:10, Edward Angel wrote:
The following is hard to believe but true.
Last weekend, I was in line at Walgreens. The older woman in front of me gave
the cashier a $20 bill for a $13.54 purchase. The young cashier was completely
unable to figure out the correct change. After a couple of failed tries, the
older woman tried to teach the cashier how to subtract $13.54 from $20 but that
was a failure. She then tried to get the casher to add to $13.54 until the
cashier reach $20. When that failed, she helped the cashier add small change
and dollars until she got to $6.46.
I don’t think giving everyone a calculator is the solution.
Ed
_______________________
Ed Angel
Founding Director, Art, Research, Technology and Science Laboratory (ARTS Lab)
Professor Emeritus of Computer Science, University of New Mexico
1017 Sierra Pinon
Santa Fe, NM 87501
505-984-0136 (home)an...@cs.unm.edu <mailto:an...@cs.unm.edu>
505-453-4944 (cell) http://www.cs.unm.edu/~angel <http://www.cs.unm.edu/~angel>
On Aug 7, 2024, at 9:28 PM, Frank Wimberly <wimber...@gmail.com> wrote:
I'm not sure my 30+ year old daughter knows the times tables. She works for
the Secretary of Public Education. If you ask her about it she will say she
uses calculators and spreadsheets. I think.
---
Frank C. Wimberly
140 Calle Ojo Feliz,
Santa Fe, NM 87505
505 670-9918
Santa Fe, NM
On Wed, Aug 7, 2024, 9:12 PM Russell Standish <li...@hpcoders.com.au
<mailto:li...@hpcoders.com.au>> wrote:
It is a test that you know your 7 or 8 times table. And the definition
of a prime number (which could be given as part of the question, if
not the curriculum).
I would expect most 9 or 10 years olds should know their times tables.
Or am I wrong abut kids these days?
On Mon, Jul 22, 2024 at 12:43:54PM -0600, Tom Johnson wrote:
> Ms. O'Hara:
>
> RE your story Sunday, "Does proficiency give full picture?"
> From your lede:
> "Pop quiz: What number is both a prime number and a factor or 56"?
>
> If I understand correctly, this is a question on an exam given to fourth
> graders, 9- or 10-year-olds.
> Could you please point me to some source in the city or state education
> departments who can tell me what short- or long-term value this question
about
> mathematics -- NOT arithmetic -- has for students that age?
>
> We live in a state where it is a rare cashier who can do the mental
> arithmetic to make change from a $20 bill. Can we first find out if fourth
> graders can do that before getting into primes and factorials?
> *--
--
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