Monday, July 28, 2008

I can't even give them weird amounts anymore to mess with them....

I saw something at the McDonald's drive-through window that disturbed me.

Searching on Google, I couldn't find any reference to it, but it led me to this...

Do you know why McDonald's employees can't calculate change in their heads? It probably doesn't help that when I handed the guy at the first window my money, he typed in the amount I gave him, then extended his arm up to a metal tube which poured out the correct change into his hand.

What? WHAT? My wife suggested it saved money due to idiots who can't calculate change properly, but maybe if they had the opportunity to practice their basic addition and subtraction they'd be able to move on to greater things... other than McDonald's management, anyway.

3 comments:

Jon Snow said...

It comes down to fundamental problems. A lot of teachers in the work force don't know how to do maths themselves. Teaching children with a text books and not knowing why blah blah ='s blah blah means that the children don't have instrumental learning.

I have found that kids that are 10-12 can't do other parts of maths e.g. geometry because they can't subtract. I saw a kid when doing 180-45 said that 0-5 = 5...which is obviously wrong. I had to explain if you had 0 dollars, could you buy something that was 5 dollars?

Now if asked that same kid, 5x5 = ?
they would have said 25...it's rote memory and no instrumental learning is required.........until you ask them why it equals 25.

I better stop now because I begin to rant.....

/end rant

shona said...

As a elementary school teacher - I am insulted by your comment... We do not teach "by rote" methods from text books. The focus has been different in math for many years now - all areas are covered (including geometry) and manipulatives are used to ensure that kids understand why things equal what they do. Perhaps the child you encountered needed some extra help from a tutor or (gasp) their parents!

Jon Snow said...

I am also an elementary school teacher (although down here we are called primary school teachers). I speak from what I have seen over during my studies and teaching experience. 80% of people who did the teaching course could barely do maths and I wouldn't (if I had it my way) let them teach anything above year 3 (grade 3). But because I don't have it my way, there are these teachers out there. You can't deny that there are incompetent maths teachers in the primary/elementary school sector.

Parents SHOULD be helping out their children, but you have to also know that a lot of parents don't know how to teach their children instrumentally when it comes to teaching maths. A lot of ways we teach maths is also a lot different from years past.