AIBU to think that a shop assistant shouldn't need a calculator for 3 x 70p?

[Flibbertyjibbet]

We went for icecreams at the weekend (yes I know it was freezing but we were at the seaside....) I asked for 3 of the 70p cones.

I had £2.10 ready, I hardly needed to even do the sum in my head.

The girl gave us 3 cones, I had put £2.10 on the counter. She waited for her colleague to finish using the calculator while I said pleasantly - 'its £2.10'. She appeared to tap in the numbers wrongly cos she took a really long time to tap in 3 x 70 =, I said nicely -'its £2.10'.

She finally said 'thats £2.10 please'.

Fair enough if they are adding up a massive order with lots of different types of ice creams. But if you work in a place where you sell multiples of the same thing a lot of the time, wouldn't you sort of get to know the price of 2, 3, 4 of each kind or thing?

But then I worked in pubs before they had those clever tills and had to add everything up in my head right first time or the drunks would complain to the landlord.

AIBU? Or am I just so old that I forget the young un's rely on calculators all the time now?

I was going to say Yabu, as I wouldn't be able to do this very quickly without a calculator.

But after reading your post I think it's reasonable to think selling multiples of the same thing would become quite easy.

Maybe it was her first day?

YANBU. The good news is they are focusing much more on mental maths at school now so the next generation ought to be able to perform such absurdly simple calculations without the need for a calculator.

Maybe they need a calculator each?

She'll probably get faster as the season goes on - I used to be able to calculate the VAT element on invoices very quickly but that was due to my job at the time where I was literally doing it all day. I'd be a lot slower now as I've not worked in accounts for years.

There are some people who are atrocious at simple sums.

We have some girls who work for us who would have to add very simple sums up on a calculator.

Drives dh nuts to watch but other than the maths they are quite talented at what they do (it is artistic).

I did my o level maths using log tables...

Learned all my times tables up to 20...

Am going to teach them by boys too, in case they ever get a job in an ice cream shop!

YANBU

A similar thing happened in my local shop where I had goods to the value of £8.12 and wanted 4 x £1 scratch cards as well. The girl on the till had to get a calculator to add £4.00 to £8.12. tut 4 times table anyone?! Or don't they teach this in schools anymore?

Also, as per the OP, it's annoying when they won't accept what you're saying is the amount they should be charging, until they have seen it on the screen of the calculator themselves!

I actually feel sorry for people who weren't taught basic stuff like this at school. It is a handicap of sorts frankly, to lots of things in life. 16 Years ago I worked as a Special Needs Assistant in a secondary school in England after finishing my degree and before I did my PGCE. I was there to support a boy with cerebal palsy, but lots of the kids used to ask me for help with all sorts of work (inc the bright ones). I was shocked by how many of them didn't have the vaguest clue whether their maths calculations were wrong (I mean really obviously wrong) and that they relied on calculators for everything at aged 12 in the top maths set!

I did my PGCE a year later in Scotland and was relieved to visit a primary school and watch 6/7 year olds doing 'proper' arithmetic and times tables.

When I did O Grades in Scotland in 1988, there were seperate Maths and Arithmetic exams because it was obvious that everyone needed arithmetic as a life skill, but not everyone could cope with maths.

A while ago I paid 2 bills at our local Nat West. One was for £130.00 the other was for £130.75. I paid with one cheque for £260.75 payable to cash. I know they don't like you doing it this way now but I don't care.

Very nice young lady on the till borrowed a calculator from the chap next to her to check my addition. Surely GCSE maths is a must for bank staff!

Many years ago I worked at the same branch. My old manager must be spinning in his grave!

I do think schools have turned out a generation of pupils that are too dependant on calculators. Things are improving again I'm sure. My DC have all done loads of mental maths at school and could have managed the above sum in the infants.

I think YABU, I consider myself numerate but if I've got an audience and people are getting impatient, I panic and my mind just goes totally blank. Nothing to do with my mathematical ability, it's just lack of confidence.

agree that this sort of thing is disabling in normal life. I watched 2 cashiers struggle to calculate £8.16 - £7.36 today. What is taught in primary school maths (not an argument starter, a genuine question) I can't remember doing much other than this and shapes until I was quite old!

i think YABU, she could have dyscalculia.

i have this and even simple sums like the one you describe stump me.

I take the points about the audience and dyscalculia, both of which could have been factors at play here (although arguably she is in the wrong job completely if they are the case.) More broadly though, I think it is an issue with many people simply because they have never been taught to do it; not because they have a learning disability or lack of confidence.

Overridden?

If all else fails, I'd prefer to see people doing sums with a pencil and piece of paper.... and you still have to use your brain to do the 'calculating'. It's really down to confidence in front of an audience and training your brain to do sums like this quickly. I keep drumming it into my little girl about showing her workings in numeracy/maths lessons. I used to think that they made the page look untidy and refused to do them as I'd already done the sum in my head. Took me years before I consented to do them but now I love helping her set out the answers to sums neatly.

Some people can't do sums, some people can't spell and some greengrocers can't place an apostrophe. It is a bit of a disability so I would be gentle with them. Tutting at people for being stupid is rarely helpful. At least she knew her shortcomings and had a workaround by using a calculator. I am crap with remembering names and faces, I wish there was a machine to help me with that.

I have worked in a secondary school and the lack of ability of students would horrify you.

Have you noticed that we no longer have news stories of 7 year olds passing Maths GCSE? I reckon my 8 year old (bright and with a facility for maths, but not G&T) could pass it.

Many people would see the arithmetic the girl had as difficult as say, 74p + 77p + 79p, because there the task was to add three numbers in the seventies. That it was essentially the same calculation as 3 x 7, which most can do, would be totally beyond them.

(Have you never had a seven year old try to impress you by adding 1000, 2000 and 3000 together to get da-dahhh!! - 6000? They really think that the sum is more difficult the higher the numbers are.)

Some people "get" maths early, and can use and enjoy all the little tricks numbers have. Some people never "get" it, become frightened about it, and then joke about how useless they are at it, and encourage their own children to think it is cool not to be able to do it.

YABU.

Some of us are really not good with numbers.

I had a good education and am educated to degree level. I am bright, articulate and switched on. I would struggle to work out 70 X 3 in my head.

I wish it weren't so, but no matter how many times I learn my numbers, it just doesn't stay in my head. I really struggle with it. My spelling lets me down too, and I wonder if they are connected. I just can't see patterns.

You are obviously lucky and like many people don't struggle with basic maths. I wish I were like you, because it's really embarrassing when people notice me struggling to do simple sums and I see them do the face and judge me for it.

Be happy you can add 3 X 70p and give the girl a break .

I have never heard of discalculia. I answered yes to most of their potential symptoms. Interesting.

I also struggle to read numbers of more than 4 digets. That really is embarrasing, and dh has tried so hard to teach me but I just can't understand it.

yabu...she might just be crap at maths

I find it depressing that there is so little understanding when people are bad at spelling and numbers. It's not that I don't want to get it right. I am aware that things I write are taken less seriously because I am sure there are spelling errors. I hope that things change.

I was always great at creative writing and I remember time and again I'd pour my heart and soul into a story only for whoever read it to completely ignore the story because it was FAR more important to point out that I'd made a spelling error. Crushing.

The accounts job I had years ago involved writing cheques by hand. One girl had to have her monthly totals written out for her in words as she was literally unable to turn £350,230.56 (for example) from her ledger into words to go on the cheque. Any sum more than 3 digits baulked her. Now I'd pack her off to basic numeracy classes but at the time we thought it amusing .

"Some people "get" maths early, and can use and enjoy all the little tricks numbers have. Some people never "get" it, become frightened about it, and then joke about how useless they are at it, and encourage their own children to think it is cool not to be able to do it. "

But isn't it strange how people are prepared to joke about being "useless with numbers" but they would be embarassed to admit they struggle to read.

I realise some people may have special problems (dyscalcula was it?) just as some people suffer with dyslexia. But for the vast majority then I really think it shocking that such a simple sum would cause problems.

YANBU IMO

Mind you - I do not think this is necessarily a new phenomenon. I know you will get members of the older generation tut-tutting at youngsters who can't cope without a calculator but I remember a transaction I conducted in a wool shop once.

This must have been nearly 30 years ago and the man serving would have been in his early 60s I guess. My pattern called for 8 x 50g balls. The man only stocked the wool I wanted in 40g balls. I said OK I will take 10 then. He got out his ready reckoner (a sort of printed table thing not a calculator) and did the conversion himself then said with some admiration "Yes you are right!". He then told me the wool was 70p a ball and proceeded to use his rr again to work out how much I owed him. When he saw I already had £7 ready he was very impressed!

I wasn't tutting or impatient, I just already had the right money ready because I looked at the prices while she was serving the person before me.
I just found it surprising that selling the ice creams all day she didn't know what 3 of them cost.

Perhaps its an age thing, those of us who learned maths and arithmetic through using pencil and paper, before calculators were used, might be more inclined to think that she should manage a simple sum. We did o level maths, then I went on to do statistics in my business studies, all using pencil and paper - the one boy in the class who used a calculator was looked on almost as a cheat !!

Younger people who are used to calculators and didn't spend hours reciting times tables at primary school might think IABU.

I didn't 'take' to maths, I struggled with it. But to me its 3x7 with a 0 on the end and I knew the sum because of the times tables being drummed into me at an early age.

I'm ok with maths in general but working in a photocopying shop I used a calculator a lot for VAT and complex multiples of copies. However I got so used to having a calculator in my hand at all times I found myself using it for something like 3x10 - just by force of habit - embarasssed myself totally! It can be easy to forget you don't need a calculator for everything.

Like Bamboobutton, I also suffer dyscalculia and struggle with the most basic mental arithmetic, especially under pressure and with an audience. I know my times tables, studied like a demon to get my GCSE maths (grade 'B') and have found ways of dealing with my learning difficulty. One of the ways is to always have a calculator on me, and avoid situations where I feel 'on the spot'.

It's nothing to do with basic intelligence, like dyslexia. Would you be that impatient someone who struggled with dyslexia?

YAB a little U....