So, you're fifth in line at the supermarket checkout, you finally reach the register...which goes blank just as the drawer opens. You saw your total, in fact, it's already printed on the receipt tape hanging out of the machine, it just hadn't printed the spiel at the end. You owe $58.49. The cashier looks at the machine slack-jawed, whacks it a couple of times, then turns to you with a sheepish expression and shrugs. You proffer the three twenties, and she shakes her head. "I can't give you your change."
"Yes you can, your drawer is open. Just count the money back."
"But the computer doesn't say what I'm supposed to give you."
"This is sixty dollars, I owe you fifty-eight dollars and forty-nine cents. I give you the sixty, and you count from forty-nine cents."
"..."
"Fifty-eight forty-nine--one cent is fifty, a quarter is seventy-five, another quarter is fifty-nine dollars, and a one is sixty. Bingo. Easy, yeah?"
"..."
Also, A tells me they're not teaching cursive in fourth grade because nobody actually writes anything down any more.
With the insistent programming to eliminate introverted behavior and make all students conform to the groups' activities, lowering achievement standards to the lowest common denominator, and punishing rather than rewarding independent thought, public schools are becoming nothing more than warehouses where children are held for safekeeping (mostly) during the parents' working hours. Pfeh. We should pay daycare workers and teachers CEO salaries--they have custody of our future.
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Date: 2010-12-18 11:43 am (UTC)"Yes you can, your drawer is open. Just count the money back."
"But the computer doesn't say what I'm supposed to give you."
"This is sixty dollars, I owe you fifty-eight dollars and forty-nine cents. I give you the sixty, and you count from forty-nine cents."
"..."
"Fifty-eight forty-nine--one cent is fifty, a quarter is seventy-five, another quarter is fifty-nine dollars, and a one is sixty. Bingo. Easy, yeah?"
"..."
Also, A tells me they're not teaching cursive in fourth grade because nobody actually writes anything down any more.
With the insistent programming to eliminate introverted behavior and make all students conform to the groups' activities, lowering achievement standards to the lowest common denominator, and punishing rather than rewarding independent thought, public schools are becoming nothing more than warehouses where children are held for safekeeping (mostly) during the parents' working hours. Pfeh. We should pay daycare workers and teachers CEO salaries--they have custody of our future.