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Short Bread Tales
Mar. 16th, 2012 09:00 pmTime once again for my annual assessment of the state of the nation's education based on one financial transaction - the purchase of Girl Guide Biscuits. In recent years there has been a steady improvement in the quality of price and change calculation. So what happened this year?
I'm cutting down consumption - I only asked for three packets, all of the same time. Rather than attempt to multiply a simple amount ($3.50)by three, the Guide looked blank and stared at her mother. The mother dithered and consulted the cheat sheet that comes with the boxes of packets. She still got the calculation wrong. Wrong in a way that couldn't even be explained by reading the wrong row of the cheat sheet.
Oh dear.
I'm cutting down consumption - I only asked for three packets, all of the same time. Rather than attempt to multiply a simple amount ($3.50)by three, the Guide looked blank and stared at her mother. The mother dithered and consulted the cheat sheet that comes with the boxes of packets. She still got the calculation wrong. Wrong in a way that couldn't even be explained by reading the wrong row of the cheat sheet.
Oh dear.