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xDuckYouSuckerx
xBannedx


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Teaching Math, 1950 to the Present
#5838860 - 07/09/06 01:27 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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Teaching Math, 1950 to the Present by Dr. Bennett Hermann
Last week I purchased a burger and fries at McDonalds for $3.58. The counter- girl took my $4.00 and I pulled 8 cents from my pocket and gave it to her. She stood there, holding the nickel and 3 pennies. While looking at the screen on her register, I sensed her discomfort and tried to tell her to just give me two quarters, but she hailed the manager for help. While he tried to explain the transaction to her,she stood there and cried. Why do I tell you this? Because of the evolution in teaching math since the 1950s......
Teaching Math In 1950: A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of productionis 4/5 of the price. What is his profit?
Teaching Math In 1960: A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price, or $80. What is his profit?
Teaching Math In 1970: A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80. Did he make a profit?
Teaching Math In 1980: A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80 and his profit is $20 Your assignment: Underline the number 20 and ask an older relative to explain the word production to you.
Teaching Math In 1990: A logger cuts down a beautiful forest because he is selfish and inconsiderate and cares nothing for the habitat of animals or the preservation of our woodlands. He does this so he can make a profit of $20. What do you think of this way of making a living? Topic for class discussion after answering the question: How did the birds and squirrels feel as the logger cut down their homes? (There are no wrong answers.)
Teaching Math In 2006: Un ranchero vende una carretera de madera para $100. El cuesto de la produccion era $80. Cuantos tortillas se puede comprar?
-------------------- Unions are the bastions of the mediocre. - luvdemshrooms
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TODAY
Battletoad


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Posts: 10,218
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Re: Teaching Math, 1950 to the Present [Re: xDuckYouSuckerx]
#5838891 - 07/09/06 01:43 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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I liked this.
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ca'rouse (k-rouz) intr.v. To engage in boisterous, drunken merrymaking.
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Phred
Fred's son


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Re: Teaching Math, 1950 to the Present [Re: xDuckYouSuckerx]
#5838895 - 07/09/06 01:45 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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Chortle, chortle.
Phred
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ClammyJoe
Azurescen Head



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Re: Teaching Math, 1950 to the Present [Re: Phred]
#5838917 - 07/09/06 01:51 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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LunarEclipse
Enlil's Official Story


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Re: Teaching Math, 1950 to the Present [Re: xDuckYouSuckerx]
#5838919 - 07/09/06 01:51 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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You are just fortunate that there wasn't a line of angry customers behind you at McD's for making that poor girl confused. I was at a gas station recenttly and tried that exact change thing and it took at least 5 minutes with help from the other clerk to figure it out. Both clerks and all the people in the line were pissed at me for trying to avoid ending up with a bunch of change.
When I worked at McDs in 1969 we had to ring in each item by hand and usually from memory AND figure the change in our heads. Not only that, we were taught to count the change backwards to the bill(s) given. Not only that, EACH cashier could take the order, get the food, take the money and make change anywhere from 30-50 people PER HOUR. And we never cried. Well maybe when we got the $ 1.45 per hour paycheck with taxes taken out...
-------------------- Anxiety is what you make it.
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Diploid
Cuban


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Re: Teaching Math, 1950 to the Present [Re: LunarEclipse]
#5839039 - 07/09/06 02:43 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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Heh... last time I tried to give someone 8 cents to make an even 50 cents change, the clerk put my eight cents in the register, then gave me back eight cents and an additional four dimes and two pennies.
I didn't argue.
-------------------- Republican Values: 1) You can't get married to your spouse who is the same sex as you. 2) You can't have an abortion no matter how much you don't want a child. 3) You can't have a certain plant in your possession or you'll get locked up with a rapist and a murderer. 4) We need a smaller, less-intrusive government.
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DoctorJ


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Re: Teaching Math, 1950 to the Present [Re: xDuckYouSuckerx]
#5839413 - 07/09/06 04:29 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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Here's how I would teach math:
"A logger cut down all the trees on Earth, so now we have to go to other planets for resources. Your assignment is to design a rocket ship for interstellar travel. Keep in mind Newton's Law of Gravity, Quantum Mechanics, and the Second Law of Thermodynamics. If your answer is wrong you will burn up in the Earth's atmosphere."
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Economist
in training


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Re: Teaching Math, 1950 to the Present [Re: xDuckYouSuckerx]
#5840504 - 07/09/06 09:47 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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Everyone always blames "the schools" or "the math cirriculum" when this happens. I don't think that's the case, I think it's simply a matter of corporations looking out for the bottom line.
Anyone who has worked a cash register for a major corporation recently (as I did a couple summers ago) knows that a lot of this has nothing to do with math abilities and has everything to do with corporate policy. I was told by a manager that, as a lowly cashier, I was not allowed to make change for my own cash drawer. If I was out of ones, fives, or any of the coins, I has to get a manager to make change for me. I was also told that I was not allowed to make specific change for anyone. So, if someone gave me a $10 bill for an item that was $2.50, and asked for no $5 bills because they needed $1 bills for the bus or something, technically I was not allowed to do that (everyone did it anyway, because there was no way to enforce the rule, and it's just curteous).
Infact, I recall once being told that in the exact scenario in the first post I was NOT ALLOWED to give the man two quarters after I had already rung in his order as $4.00. It was explained to me that "Most con men wait until you have the drawer open to try and 'confuse you' with change," and therefore I should only ever give customers what the computer told me to.
As with the other rules, this tended to be broken frequently. But it's just something for everyone to think about the next time a cashier does something "stupid". More often than not, they're doing it because their boss told them to.
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xDuckYouSuckerx
xBannedx


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Re: Teaching Math, 1950 to the Present [Re: Economist]
#5840679 - 07/09/06 10:28 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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Yea, I'm sure that most people working at McDonalds probably have advanced degrees in mathematics, but the man keeps 'em down.
-------------------- Unions are the bastions of the mediocre. - luvdemshrooms
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Economist
in training


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Re: Teaching Math, 1950 to the Present [Re: xDuckYouSuckerx]
#5840910 - 07/09/06 11:38 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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No, most people working at McDonalds don't hold advanced degrees in mathematics.
But many (especially among the cashiers) are highschool or college students working towards degrees. They are new to the job and just don't want to get fired, so they do what managemen asks, even when they know its stupid.
I'll also assume from my response that you can't dispute my point: that many corporations have policies which prevent employees from doing simple arithmetic for fear of hurting the bottom line.
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KingOftheThing
the cool fool


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Re: Teaching Math, 1950 to the Present [Re: xDuckYouSuckerx]
#5840920 - 07/09/06 11:43 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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charlton heston's brain is turning to mush hahahahahahaha
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xDuckYouSuckerx
xBannedx


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Re: Teaching Math, 1950 to the Present [Re: Economist]
#5840943 - 07/09/06 11:49 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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I've never ever worked at one place where I was told not to make change.
-------------------- Unions are the bastions of the mediocre. - luvdemshrooms
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Basilides
Servent ofWisdom


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Re: Teaching Math, 1950 to the Present [Re: xDuckYouSuckerx]
#5841060 - 07/10/06 12:27 AM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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I know it's racist, but it's funny
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    "Have you found the beginning, then, that you are looking for the end? You see, the end will be where the beginning is. Congratulations to the one who stands at the beginning: that one will know the end and will not taste death."
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Baby_Hitler
Errorist



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Re: Teaching Math, 1950 to the Present [Re: xDuckYouSuckerx]
#5841450 - 07/10/06 05:33 AM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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She had prpbably had a long day full of people like you and was suffering from mental fatigue.
(Edit: Took out a flame)
Edited by Redstorm (07/10/06 09:08 AM)
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Economist
in training


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Re: Teaching Math, 1950 to the Present [Re: xDuckYouSuckerx]
#5842148 - 07/10/06 11:42 AM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
xDuckYouSuckerx said: I've never ever worked at one place where I was told not to make change.
I can list three places where I have worked that have official policies (you can find them in the employee handbooks if you look) of not making change once the register is open: Barnes & Noble The Gap Stop & Shop Supermarkets
I know because I worked at these places during highschool and summers when I first went to college. Now, in many of these places employees will eventually learn that it just pisses customers off not to make change as requested by the customer, but that doesn't change what it says in the handbooks.
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sever
Where am I?
Registered: 02/02/03
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Re: Teaching Math, 1950 to the Present [Re: Baby_Hitler]
#5842151 - 07/10/06 11:43 AM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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~
Edited by sever (07/17/06 02:04 PM)
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Corporal Kielbasa

Registered: 05/29/04
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Re: Teaching Math, 1950 to the Present [Re: xDuckYouSuckerx]
#5842158 - 07/10/06 11:45 AM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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RosettaStoned
Stranger

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Re: Teaching Math, 1950 to the Present [Re: sever]
#5842176 - 07/10/06 11:52 AM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
The girl was probably just stressed out by this. dealing with jackass customers all day can have a toll on basic mental function.
There is no girl, this is made up I've had something very similiar to this emailed to me. Granted there "might" have been this situation somewhere, but this exact one is only for shits and giggles.
-------------------- "Government big enough to provide you with all you need is also big enough to take everything you have." ~ Thomas Jefferson "Without stupid, faggy potheads we wouldn't have wars." - Zappa
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xDuckYouSuckerx
xBannedx


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Re: Teaching Math, 1950 to the Present [Re: Basilides]
#5842422 - 07/10/06 01:18 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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Your bumblefucked liberal mind sees that as "racism"? Thats the problem right there, anything that seems to go against the tide of massive non-white immigration and breeding, the influx of foreign (and quite crappy) cultures, well, thats "Racism". I guess you'd say that Bill Clinton and Karl Rove speaking before the National Council of La Raza (The Race) isn't racism though, right?
-------------------- Unions are the bastions of the mediocre. - luvdemshrooms
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Phred
Fred's son


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Re: Teaching Math, 1950 to the Present [Re: xDuckYouSuckerx]
#5842874 - 07/10/06 03:20 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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Banned for flaming. Enjoy your time off.
Phred
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