Kind of agree with this topic, however, I feel that it should include English as well. I was fed up with seeing on my (now) sister in laws home work 'you should have used a computer to check your spelling' --- whats wrong with a dictionary?

As for Maths somehow I achieved a B at GCSE and despite having attended 5 maths courses since leaving school, the basics of multiplication long division just seem to pass straight over me.

Though even I worked out the mcDonalds question :help:

[quote]you didn't see an old crone there by the way did you? [/quote]

Earning a bit of money to fuel the broom for the Friday, 31 October, broom flight? :p

Funny, this same thing has happened to me recently and the outcome exactly the same. I don't think good old fashioned maths is taught anymore. Times tables and the other basics. Shizara, you didn't see an old crone there by the way did you? She's the cleaner. :D

Last weekend I visited one of the Nation's favourite fast food outlets aka McDonald's. I spent £10.16 for 2 people, gave the lass a £20 note and a .20p coin thinking it would save her change and not weigh my pocket down. She was puzzled, so I explained that she need to take the .16p from the .20p coin and give me £10 in exchange for the £20 note. She was even more confused and said that she couldn't do that because her till would be down. I assured her that wouldn't be the case. Was then told she would have to get her supervisor. I thought for a moment that I should just take the pile of change and leave it at that. She began counting out the change which included a lot of smaller coins. I sighed and thought "[i]Here was I, trying to make it easy[/i]". I looked for a moment at a bemused customer next to me who said "[i]Clearly maths are not a strong point.[/i]" I tried again and was given a £10 note and .2p change from the .20p coin. Said to her that there needs to be .4p change from the .20p coin. Puzzled, she gave the other coin and I dropped the 2 coins in the charity box.

The moral of the story is, I shouldn't bother trying to make it easy or save their change as well as not fill my pocket with lots of small change, all it does is confuse the till operator, but I do wonder if over reliance on calculators makes it more difficult for the younger generations to calculate mentally.

I guess the other side of the coin is that there are a few unscrupulous individuals out there who deliberately set out to confuse the till operator and manage to get away with either paying nothing or having gained from the experience.