She was friendly, polite and courteous and seemingly in control. But, she kept slowing down the line.<\/p>\n
Before we analyze the young local checker, let me give you my take on causing stoppages, or even slowages. I say with no hesitation that I would rather paste my nostrils together with Crazy Glue than to hold up a line.<\/p>\n
You know what I mean:<\/p>\n
If I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t locate that last letter to drop into the mobile mailbox, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll drive off, perhaps circle back and do it right. If I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve picked up an item that lacks a price tag and will thus necessitate having the checkout person go to the back of the store to check the price, or \u00e2\u20ac\u201d worse \u00e2\u20ac\u201d summon the manager, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll simply decide I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need the item.<\/p>\n
And if too many cars drive toward me when I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m attempting a left turn onto National from Seventh Street, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll go straight, circle the block and try again.<\/p>\n
That differs from others who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll wait for three light changes with a zillion cars behind them, until they can turn left; or those who demand the convening of the Second Vatican Council to determine whether that roll of paper towels sells for $2.29 instead of $2.25, or the person who hassles the clerk who won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t accept a check for liquor or a lottery ticket.<\/p>\n
So, back to the friendly clerk: She was holding up the line on my account because of the lack of mathematical skills alluded to in a recent op-ed piece by Highlands professor Gregg Turner.<\/p>\n
But let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s complete the explanation about the checker first. Her register showed that I owed $10.55. I pulled out a twenty and a one so I would get a ten and change back and let the store keep its singles. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like being like the flea-market early-bird who whips out a fifty to buy a twenty-five-cent paperback.<\/p>\n
Several times, checkers have seemed flummoxed, returning the one I gave and making change from the twenty, loading me up with small bills I was trying to avoid.<\/p>\n
Surely, subtracting 10 and change from 21 should be simple enough. The checker whipped out her calculator and tried to figure out the change.<\/p>\n
That caused a delay, which means, no matter what, the customer gets the blame \u00e2\u20ac\u201d from other once-patient patrons in line. I told the checker, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You owe me $10.45,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d but that went ignored.<\/p>\n
Once, my family took our birthday boy to a local restaurant, where the place used to give a discount commensurate with the person\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s age. It was our son\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 25th birthday, and accordingly, we\/he expected a discount of 25 percent: a $10 meal would have cost $7.50.<\/p>\n
The waitress \u00e2\u20ac\u201d calculator at the ready \u00e2\u20ac\u201d simply subtracted 25 cents from the total. Rather than a reasonable percentage discount, we were comped a whole quarter. Trying to explain the mathematics of the transaction was fruitless.<\/p>\n
The waitress showed us several times what numbers she had crunched to give us that total, so our opinion didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t matter. Not to demand a discount due us, but merely to make our point, we spoke to the restaurant owner several days later, explaining that digits which show up on a calculator usually don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t lie, but if the user punches the minus key when it should be the percentage key, customers tend to leave perplexed.<\/p>\n
Gregg Turner\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s opening paragraph in the Sept. 21 issue of the Optic began with a simple question: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153OK, so what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 50 percent of 20?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I believe he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s correct in positing that so many people struggle with simple math, inasmuch as all he got was silence.<\/p>\n
But I also wonder how many of his Highlands students really didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know the answer. Could they have suspected a trick question? Were some just naturally shy?<\/p>\n
When I was a student in a senior level class, I had a professor whose popularity dropped many points in one day.
\nHere\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what happened: In a senior class, restricted to majors in a particular academic field, the professor expressed that last year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s class (taking the same course) disappointed her.<\/p>\n
Why? She told us she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d asked the previous year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s class, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153How many of you have heard of Adam and Eve? Raise your hands.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The prof said that in the class of around 20, only two hands went up. To her, that indicated generalized ignorance. She added that she believed few of those students, senior majors, even belonged in college.<\/p>\n
The teacher was wont to using the word \u00e2\u20ac\u0153slash\u00e2\u20ac\u009d when it came to grading term papers. She invoked that word to punctuate how she must have searched for every conceivable error. Remember, if a professor writes \u00e2\u20ac\u0153trite\u00e2\u20ac\u009d on the margin of your paper, and subtracts points for your clich\u00c3\u00a9dom, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not a quantitative, mathematical issue that a student can successfully challenge.<\/p>\n
As I look back, I wonder what would have happened if, as a slightly older student, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d been in that class and had answered something like, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Adam and Eve? Weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t they the Highlands homecoming king and queen?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Hmm. Weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t they the ones who funded Columbus\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s trip to the New World?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t Adam and Eve on the late-night show last night?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Whereas I agree with Prof. Turner\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s conclusion that many college students are woefully unprepared for certain courses, I wonder whether the awkward silence, the looking down at the floor were, for some students, the fear the professor might have been asking a trick question.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n
I had two students who went into full panic mode, perhaps 20 years ago, when I introduced basic math concepts in a journalism course. Writing for a newspaper demands a rudimentary knowledge of math, especially when one covers public affairs, with budgets, raises, inflation rates, mill levies and deficits.<\/p>\n
I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t able to relieve the math anxiety these two coeds underwent. I trust that Prof. Turner will be more successful with his students.<\/p>\n
And I applaud his dedication and adherence to high standards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
She was friendly, polite and courteous and seemingly in control. But, she kept slowing down the line. Before we analyze the young local checker, let me give you my take on causing stoppages, or even slowages. I say with no hesitation that I would rather paste my nostrils together with Crazy Glue than to hold […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/983"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=983"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":984,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/983\/revisions\/984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}