50 years of Math

[TFOGGER]

My first job out of high school was selling wheels and tires. Out on the sales floor, we had a book with prices in it, and we had standard prices for labor and accessories such as valve stems and chrome lug nuts. My manager was utterly amazed that I could figure a total package deal for a set of wheels and tires, with all the accessories, including tax and labor, in my head, while talking to the customer, and be accurate within a buck or 2. I learned to do math in my head because I had horrible issues learning to write quickly in elementary school, and by high school, I had given up on a calculator, as I was always losing 'em. Kids today never learn to do the math without a calculator or computer....

[Not_A_Llama]

You went to Burger King, and expected....?

[weirjf]

You went to Burger King, and expected....?

a mocha Joe

not a mocha yo

[GhostRider]

but at the same time

[rockhound]

that was fu....g hilarious, funniest thing i have read in forever.

[cebeu]

heh heh

[trlcavscout]

The true math question for this is:

I ate at Burger king, how many calories were in it? How long does it take to burn them off? And how many hours of life did I lose by eating that?

[jerrymrc]

A couple of years ago I gave a twenty for a $4.45 purchase or so. After getting my wad back (nobody else behind me) I put it on the counter. The girl was standing there so I went four fifty, five, five is ten and ten is twenty. putting down the nickle, two quarters, a five and a ten.

Her reply was "how did you do that?"

[BPTactical]

Thats a Zing! for MtnMan!

True story- when my oldest was in 5th grade, 95 or 96 he was in a pre algebra class. I was helping him with some of his homework and I saw one of his math papers and checked it out. Now I am no calculus genius but I know that 5 x X = 20 that X is 4. In going through his paper I noticed that the majority of his answers were wrong but he still got a B on the paper. I hung on to the paper and went to the school the next day and put the paper on the teachers desk and asked her about it, how he could get a B when most of the answers were wrong. Her reply: "Well I am not concerned with the correct answers, I am grading the concept."
WTF??? I was livid.
I told her that we did not go to the moon on a concept nor was the Eisenhower Tunnel built on a concept.
The only way he is going to get the "Concept" was to solve the equations correctly. Teach my child correctly or dont teach him at all.

It must have worked-his grades sucked until he got the idea down.
That teacher was not there the next year.

No wonder homeschooled kids typically perform better in testing.

[Irving]

... or write a sentence without using textese.

The other day I was at one of my jobs and was telling my manager how kids actually use textese on their school papers now. He didn't believe me until one of the other guys (who is a teacher) told him it was true. I was bragging about how even when I'm drunk, I still take the time to type out full words and can even correctly use a semicolon. One of the dumber employees asked, "What's a semicolon?" and our manager replied to her with, "It's the thing you use to make a winky face."

I about died and pointed out how that was the VERY thing that I was complaining about. In order to explain what a certain punctuation mark is to someone today, you have to tell them what kind of smiley you can make with it?! Dios mios!



Also, I suck at math.