Dumbing down further

[vettecat]

As if kids' math skills weren't bad enough... now Monopoly is going to stop using paper money and include a money calculator instead. Way to promote learning to manage money, people...

Comments

[donnad.livejournal.com]

That is so sad.

I remember when I was in college I was an Pre-algebra tutor. I found it rather frustrating that the people I was tutoring didn't have the basic math skills. They could not add, subtract, multiply or divide without a calculator. I had to teach the basics before I could tutor the COLLEGE LEVEL PRE-algebra. How they ever got to college I don't know. These people couldn't balance a checkbook without a calculator.

I think part of it is they no longer have to figure out change at cash registers, it's either already figured out for them on the register or things are put on credit or debit cards. People put way too much trust in machines now.

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

I think you're right. When I worked as a cashier in high school, I learned how to punch in numbers, but sometimes the machine wouldn't work and you had to be able to figure it out manually. It's gotten much worse since then; cashiers give me weird looks if I give them a little extra so I can get back an easier-to-manage amount of change. I've heard that they're even giving kids calculators in elementary school now. What's the point?