"Multiplication, That's the Name of the Game"

Or so the old Bobby Darin song goes, but apparently, not these days.

I'm going to replace four waney lap fence panels which have been "eaten" or nearly, by next door's uncontrolled creeper.
I phoned a local company that make heavy duty ones which are excellent quality, I bought two just a month ago, when I replaced two behind our tea-house.

A young lady answered the phone, yes they could deliver them tomorrow morning and yes I could pay cash on delivery. But then the conversation went like this.

"I think I paid about eighteen pounds for the last ones, plus delivery."

"Err, no they're only £16.00"

"Ah! But you've got to add on the VAT."

"Oh yes!"

"So how much will that be?"

"I don't know, my calculator has stopped working, can you phone back later?"

"Would you like me to work it out for you?"

"Yes please!"

So I did, I admit to using my calculator on my computer, but I could have worked it out on a bit of paper using simple multiplication, but I was paying for the phone call.
I remember once when working I asked one of the office clerks if she'd got a total for something which was on a sheet of paper in front of her on her desk.
"I've just got to add it up" she said and she started to look for a calculator. It was only a dozen double digit figures and I'd added it up in my head before she'd got the calculator and had started.
..and as I was standing in front of her desk, so I was reading them upside down!

 

Skills like mental arithmetic are not taught now, Doghouse. Don't you know that :wink:

 

Don't I know it.

Once when I was working, when we were stocktaking, this'll be fifteen years ago. Two part time workers who were at university asked me "What's twelve fifteens Boss?"

"and you're at University!"

"Yes but we're doing law, we don't do maths!"

Physically writing stuff down had already disappeared the bar codes of products were scanned and the quantities were punched into a hand held terminal.
Trouble was, the stock still had to be counted first!

 

Stop me if i've told this tale before, back in the last recession I was working on a mushroom farm.

One morning the boss wanted to put up a new large polytunnel. He told me that if we get all the posts in square, then the hoops would just slot in.

After banging posts in & having several failed attempts to slot the hoops in he cussed & went off for a cup of tea.

I had a cigarette and a think, if I broke the rectangle into 2 triangles then I could calculate the diagonal from the other 2 lengths. So, quick bit of geometry, I had all 3 dimensions & banged all the posts in.

I was just slotting the last hoop in as the boss came back. He said "B*gger I, how'd e get that done so quick ?"

I said "A bloke called Pythagorus showed me"

He said "Does e live in the village ?"

And he was serious.

 

My favourite numerical joke was around at the time of metrification in the building industry.

A guy goes into a wood yard and says; "I need 32ft of 3" X 2""

The assistant says; "Sorry sir, we're all metric now. You'll have to give me what you want in metres."

"OK then, make it ten metres."

"Hmm.. Ten metres you say?" says the assistant looking at his rule.

"Let me see.. ten metres.... hmm.... that's about 32 feet isn't it?"

 

When I was having my kitchen fitted (by cowboys but they were **** cheap) one of them said he couldn't cut the hole out for the cooker top as it didn't say what size to cut. I looked at and said "Well, as the model says whatever 3728 do you think that might be the size?" He replied "I thought that BUT it measures 370 by 280" DUH! :dh::dh::dh:

 

You're quite wrong there Alice, they are still taught (at least they were when we left teaching 5 years ago :yho. The problem is that there are now so many other things being stuffed into the the curriculm by politicians that the time available isn't nearly as much, or sufficient, as it was once upon a time.
It's actually all rather sad because there is now so more more known about cognitive styles and an acceptance that children do not have a 'one size fits all' method of learning, particulary in maths, that teachers can or rather could, if given the time, produce some pretty good mathematicians.
Nurturing a class of 30+ kids is a bit like growing 30+ different plants. A good general fertiliser will get some results but for optimum yield or bloom the nutrients need to be varied according to individual needs.

I'll now go and tether my hobby horse:D

 

Daft as it seems, thats a problem with the school system & the real world.

Schools teach centimetres. Builders use millimeters & metres. It probably just confused him.

I've told my kids to ignore any teacher that uses the word centimetre.

They now ignore all the teachers.:yho:

 

I'd lay money on at least 25% of the final year primary class in my last school being able to come up with the answer to that in 10 seconds. Some of the kids would learn up to their 15x table for fun, but all of the class would have been taught 'quick multiplication tricks' and have worked out ((10x15) + (2x15)) by 'to multiply by 10 just add a zero' and then mentally adding two fifteens.
I was, I have to admit fortunate, in that the vast majority of pupils were motivated to learn and came from very supportive families and this sadly isn't always the case.

 

Yet in the USA the building measurement I think is still feet and inches.

I think it's still possible to teach kids "old style" Three Rs stuff. Our daughter continued the "tradition" we had with our kids. The use of home-made "flash cards" for reading, making it a competitive "game" between child and parent. All our kids and hers could read before they went to school. With the maths now, our grandkids have these computer games which teaches them arithmetic by making a game of it.

The goverment has a lot to answer for. Kids get taught what the "experts" think they need. In the "real world" they need the skills a prospective employer thinks they need, the first of these being able to read write and add up.

Then there's this abolition of "competition" between kids within schools as it "restricts their development" then the moment they leave school they're thrust into a "dog eat dog" employment environment.

... I'll stop bangin' on now...

 

The US of A is a real pain in the sit-upon when it comes to mensuration and sticking to the old imperial scale. They must be the only country in the world that hasn't adopted the metric scale. I build radio antennas and often use US designs and it's an absolute pain converting measurements. Our son builds guitars and mainly uses US designs and has great trouble after being educated in metric in solving problems like ' what's half of 7/32"?

 

Eldest son is a consultant engineer.
About fifteen years ago for the firm employing him at the time, he ordered some electrical equipment from the USA having supplied the drawings.
When the kit arrived, they couldn't get it through the doors.
The Yanks had read centimetres as inches.

 

When I did my electronics apprenticeship I started by being given a Bulb and a Battery. I had to wire it up and make it light. I then added bits of circuitry and things advanced until I was able to repair a computer. Because when all said and done more things can be understood if you break them down in their main parts.

So in schooling I am a great believer in giving pupils the building blocks, like strong maths skills, strong english skills, strong science skills and most importantly strong reading skills. From those anything else really can be attempted and if you don't know the answer (like we don't most of the time) we have the skills the look it up.

I know teachers are between a rock and hard place because of interference from various Government ministers who seem to change on a daily basis, but I just wish someone would be strong enough to stand up to them and stop the watering down of our youngsters education. Hmmm rant over .. :dh:

 

I've said this before somewhere. When it came to employment applications, if I saw that applicants couldn't fill in a simple four page application form properly with legible handwriting, they wouldn't get to the first interview.