A sad story about Math

 

         Your change will be $3.63 mam...

        My wife worked as a cashier at Mcdonalds, and one day a lady came in and placed her order. Her total came up to $16.37. The lady paid with a $20 , and when my wife handed her back $3.63 the lady got furious.
She swore that she was owed $4.00 because her total was $16.37. My wife, being an excellent judge of character, could tell that the lady was being totally serious. She truly thought that her change was supposed to be $4.00. My wife tried to explain to her what her change was every way she could. The manager and other employees tried to explain it to her, and then finally another customer waiting behind her had to break out his cellphone calculator to show the lady what her change should have been. After looking at the number on the calculator, she apologized and grabbed her food and left extremely embarrassed.

                       The sad truth

       Unfortunately, this was not the first time this has happened. The number of people who are unable to even properly calculate change is staggering. It was an occurrence that happened a couple of times each week. Levels of math literacy are steadily declining, and it should not be ignored. There are many programs and alternate learning centers that offering after school and even weekend classes to those struggling with math. However, they are not everywhere.Small towns like the one I am from do not have those resources at hand, and any of the alternatives are more expensive than the average household can afford.  

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