Why don't American kids learn basic stuff?

[Azathoth]

Not just kids, though kids seem shockingly ignorant these days. There's a middle aged woman at the bank I go to who works as a teller. Nice woman, don't get me wrong. Very personable. But she can't count! Takes her ten minutes counting out money every time I cash my check. She counts it out multiple times, using a calculator. And then she counts it out again
I paid a bill last week. I gave her two fifty dollar bills, and five twenties. Two hunert bucks. Simple, right? Not for her. I was in line for so long that I was late getting back to work from lunch

Complain to the manager. If she can't manage that level of basic numeracy she shouldn't be working in a bank

[Seth]

So would you then consider the financial influence neo-conservatism thinking of using education as a means to promote a narrowly defined free market ideology and cutting anything it does not find beneficial to that counter revolutionary propaganda or equally an equally insidious indoctrination of children?

Nope. Marxism (and indeed all collectivist dogmas) is fucking evil incarnate and all Marxists must die. Free-market capitalism is not.

[Seth]

Not just kids, though kids seem shockingly ignorant these days. There's a middle aged woman at the bank I go to who works as a teller. Nice woman, don't get me wrong. Very personable. But she can't count! Takes her ten minutes counting out money every time I cash my check. She counts it out multiple times, using a calculator. And then she counts it out again
I paid a bill last week. I gave her two fifty dollar bills, and five twenties. Two hunert bucks. Simple, right? Not for her. I was in line for so long that I was late getting back to work from lunch

And you stood there and took it? What the fuck is wrong with you? Have you really been made so servile and complacent by our society that you can't get irate and start shouting for the manager when you encounter some moron who's been hired for affirmative-action reasons?

Holy shit man, that's not her fault, it's YOUR fault for not making a big scene on the spot. If we don't make a scene when we're faced with incompetent boobs (particularly in banks) we deserve exactly what we get.

Sheesh!

[Gallstones]

We don't really need all Marxists to die.

Some of them might be rehabilitatable.



Seth, not everyone has your temperament, and your methods won't work for everyone.
If tatt was willing to allow the woman to take her time, then that is his sovereign right.

[Seth]

We don't really need all Marxists to die.

Some of them might be rehabilitatable.

Well, I'm willing to give them the time between target acquisition and trigger press to recant, but not much more.

[Robert_S]

We don't really need all Marxists to die.

Some of them might be rehabilitatable.

Well, I'm willing to give them the time between target acquisition and trigger press to recant, but not much more.

Yep, you go with the tolerance!!!

Get yourself and like-minded people to repeat that sentiment and watch the support for gun control legislation dwindle!

[Audley Strange]

We don't really need all Marxists to die.

Some of them might be rehabilitatable.

Well, I'm willing to give them the time between target acquisition and trigger press to recant, but not much more.

Yep, you go with the tolerance!!!

Get yourself and like-minded people to repeat that sentiment and watch the support for gun control legislation dwindle!

But like minded people working together is a form of collectivism, are you suggesting he blow his own brains out?

[Audley Strange]

So would you then consider the financial influence neo-conservatism thinking of using education as a means to promote a narrowly defined free market ideology and cutting anything it does not find beneficial to that counter revolutionary propaganda or equally an equally insidious indoctrination of children?

Nope. Marxism (and indeed all collectivist dogmas) is fucking evil incarnate and all Marxists must die. Free-market capitalism is not.

Appreciate the late 1950's McCarthy style parody, so you think it beneficial counter-revolutionary propaganda then. This might sound tangential, but would you like to be able to own slaves?

[Svartalf]

I would enjoy being able to buy when an OT respecting guy sells his daughters into slavery.
(sorry, I'll let the other guy speak for himself)

[tattuchu]

Not just kids, though kids seem shockingly ignorant these days. There's a middle aged woman at the bank I go to who works as a teller. Nice woman, don't get me wrong. Very personable. But she can't count! Takes her ten minutes counting out money every time I cash my check. She counts it out multiple times, using a calculator. And then she counts it out again
I paid a bill last week. I gave her two fifty dollar bills, and five twenties. Two hunert bucks. Simple, right? Not for her. I was in line for so long that I was late getting back to work from lunch

And you stood there and took it? What the fuck is wrong with you? Have you really been made so servile and complacent by our society that you can't get irate and start shouting for the manager when you encounter some moron who's been hired for affirmative-action reasons?

Holy shit man, that's not her fault, it's YOUR fault for not making a big scene on the spot. If we don't make a scene when we're faced with incompetent boobs (particularly in banks) we deserve exactly what we get.

Sheesh!

I'm very polite, Seth. I suffer in silence. I'm half English, remember.
It's okay, though. She has the least seniority so they're letting her go in a month or so. I overheard her talking to the others about it. There's a big push there to get everyone to direct deposit their checks, and do as much of their business online as possible. So it looks like they're trimming the fat.
She's a nice woman, and I hate to see anyone lose their job. On the other hand, I don't believe she has any business working in a bank, as you say. So I suppose it all works out in the end.

p.s. Not sure she was an affirmative action hire. Although she's a ginger, so you could very well be right

[Robert_S]

Not just kids, though kids seem shockingly ignorant these days. There's a middle aged woman at the bank I go to who works as a teller. Nice woman, don't get me wrong. Very personable. But she can't count! Takes her ten minutes counting out money every time I cash my check. She counts it out multiple times, using a calculator. And then she counts it out again
I paid a bill last week. I gave her two fifty dollar bills, and five twenties. Two hunert bucks. Simple, right? Not for her. I was in line for so long that I was late getting back to work from lunch

And you stood there and took it? What the fuck is wrong with you? Have you really been made so servile and complacent by our society that you can't get irate and start shouting for the manager when you encounter some moron who's been hired for affirmative-action reasons?

Holy shit man, that's not her fault, it's YOUR fault for not making a big scene on the spot. If we don't make a scene when we're faced with incompetent boobs (particularly in banks) we deserve exactly what we get.

Sheesh!

I'm very polite, Seth. I suffer in silence. I'm half English, remember.
It's okay, though. She has the least seniority so they're letting her go in a month or so. I overheard her talking to the others about it. There's a big push there to get everyone to direct deposit their checks, and do as much of their business online as possible. So it looks like they're trimming the fat.
She's a nice woman, and I hate to see anyone lose their job. On the other hand, I don't believe she has any business working in a bank, as you say. So I suppose it all works out in the end.

p.s. Not sure she was an affirmative action hire. Although she's a ginger, so you could very well be right

Gingers don't get equal protection under the law in the US, unless they're also Muslim.

[Coito ergo sum]

So would you then consider the financial influence neo-conservatism thinking of using education as a means to promote a narrowly defined free market ideology and cutting anything it does not find beneficial to that counter revolutionary propaganda or equally an equally insidious indoctrination of children?

I would. But, that hasn't happened in the U.S. Over the past 50 years, a marked trend to the contrary has occurred. The most problematic thing I see is the elimination of hard subjects - basic "history" (or, American, European, whatever, specific areas), geography, and hard sciences, in favor of propaganda vehicles like "social studies" and "Earth science." And, there was a theory held by many teachers in the 70s and 80s that homework was bad for kids. I'm not sure how prevalent that is anymore, but I doubt it's decreased.

The main cause, though, are parents, and a culture that glorifies stupidity and ignorance. It's the Bill & Ted mentality, that it's cool to be clueless and dopey. It's the change in the zeitgeist from viewing science and the advancement of knowledge as beneficial, to a Luddite culture where scientists were plotting evil deeds and technology is harmful. Also, there is the "what do I need that for?" mentality that has permeated American thinking. If a subject doesn't help you work in some office somewhere, then why bother with it? Lost is any appreciation for the notion that being "educated" is important.

With a subject like history, it seems that almost everyone in the US has accepted the silly notion that knowing dates, places and names of people is unimportant, and all we really need to know is why events happened and what their significance is. What folks fail to appreciate, however, is the fact that it is almost impossible to really understand "why" without knowing who, what, where, when and how first. Not knowing the basic chronology of historical events, for example, makes history a jumbled mess, where a person doesn't know the ordering of major events. I once was shocked to learn that a 20-something year old friend of mine could not state with any certainty whether the US Civil War occurred before or after World War One. I mean - I wouldn't have batted an eye if someone doesn't have the beginning and ending years of those events exactly, but I would expect someone to be able to say that the Civil War occurred in the mid-1800s, and that WW1 occurred in the early 1900's. I would HOPE that almost everyone could narrow it to the 1860s for the former and 1910's for the latter, if not the exact years, but I'd settle for a range of 20-odd years. This friend of mine couldn't even say that the Civil War happened in the 1800's. No clue. Now, how in the world could anyone put those events into context and know a damn thing about "why" they happened, if they can't even fit the wars into any sort of temporal context? How could a person know a damn thing about either war, and not be able to say - just based on the advancement of weaponry used in WW! over the US Civil War - that WW1 occurred later?

[Coito ergo sum]

Not just kids, though kids seem shockingly ignorant these days. There's a middle aged woman at the bank I go to who works as a teller. Nice woman, don't get me wrong. Very personable. But she can't count! Takes her ten minutes counting out money every time I cash my check. She counts it out multiple times, using a calculator. And then she counts it out again
I paid a bill last week. I gave her two fifty dollar bills, and five twenties. Two hunert bucks. Simple, right? Not for her. I was in line for so long that I was late getting back to work from lunch

Complain to the manager. If she can't manage that level of basic numeracy she shouldn't be working in a bank

Many banks have policies requiring tellers to count in a specific manner, and to do it twice to make sure they always get it right. If a teller miscounts and their drawer is off, it's a big strike against them. So, they count, and recount, in a set pattern, so they do the same thing every time and always make an accurate count. Even when there are only a couple of bills - they don't deviate their practice so they can honestly report that they "always" follow a specific procedure.

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[Gawdzilla Sama]

So would you then consider the financial influence neo-conservatism thinking of using education as a means to promote a narrowly defined free market ideology and cutting anything it does not find beneficial to that counter revolutionary propaganda or equally an equally insidious indoctrination of children?

Nope. Marxism (and indeed all collectivist dogmas) is fucking evil incarnate and all Marxists must die. Free-market capitalism is not.

Color TV is wasted on you, I bet.