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| Calculator clipart via Magical Educator |
Sometime in the early 1990s I went to a local drug store (Eckerd, RIP) to purchase stuff. One item I picked up was marked "3 for $2". Once I had finished I shopping I went to check out.
This store didn't have bar code scanners (it was a long time ago) so the cashier, early 20s or late teens, had to ring up each item by hand. When he got to the item in question he looked at the price tag and mumbled, "Three for $2? Hmm."
He looked around to see if he'd missed the other two. He hadn't. Then he looked at me and asked, "You getting just one of these?"
"Yes," I said. He looked confused. "That's about 66 cents," I offered, helpfully (Hey, I truncated. Sue me).
He picked up a calculator and punched buttons. The he looked up at me and said with a smirk, "67 cents."
Here was a presumably high school educated (maybe a senior in high school) person who could divide 2 by 3 in his head. And apparently decimals, rounding down, and rounding up were alien concepts also.
So what about today? Are kids these days any better at arithmetic?
