It Doesn't Add Up

We are fairly intelligent people with access to all types of education and information. But we often aren't good at math. It literally doesn't add up. My sorry beginnings I can blame on poor teaching. I know there are many talented math teachers out there, but I didn't meet any until I was way past my school years. I believe that math came so easily to those people that they truly didn't understand that many of us needed clear explanations. My least favorite teacher, the one I seriously considered putting a contract out on, if I could save enough money babysitting, was my high school algebra teacher. He'd present some concept and give us homework. We'd come back the next day and start asking questions. To every question he only ever said one thing, "What don't you understand?" I suspect he thought he was brilliantly leading us to the answer, but his system was faulty. For an all too brief ten-week period we had a student teacher who actually explained things. The veil lifted. Math made sense. Then she left. The veil descended. The fog returned. I was saved by a book I read so long ago that I remember only one important lesson. The authors would give a roomful of people a math problem to do. When they asked for the answer, many people volunteered. When they asked for someone to explain how they got their answer, everyone sat on their hands. Apparently, most of us are convinced that the way we go about math is "wrong." The point the authors made was that if you get the right answer you're doing it right, even if you won't find your system in any textbook. That finally gave me the courage to keep doing it my way. And it works. I'm good at arithmetic. I can balance my checkbook. Most of the time. I find it amusing and bemusing watching "young" people--which means just about everyone younger than I am, since I can remember when calculators became commonplace--struggle with simple math problems. Having a mini-computer in our pockets has made us lazy, too quick to grab it for an easy answer, without a thought as to whether we need the help or not. At the self-checkout area of my grocery store, my coupon wouldn't scan. The very young girl who was there needed to do the subtraction herself and she took out her phone and used the calculator app. She was so intent on her work that she didn't hear me saying, "Sixty-two cents. Sixty-two cents." The item was $2.50 and the coupon reduced it to $1.88. My mental calculation was: 250 down to 200 is 50, 188 to 200 is 12, and 50 + 12 = voila! 62. I had the answer way before she did. Another time I had to take a coupon I'd forgotten to use to the service desk. The woman immediately grabbed a calculator. Using it, she told me that my refund for the item I'd paid $12.99 for, but was on sale for $7.99, was $4.00. She was a little annoyed when I told her she was wrong, and even more so when she realized she was wrong. But really ... 12 - 7 = 4? It's faster and easier to do it in your head. If you're not used to it, it will take some practice, but think a little before grabbing for that easy fix. We're so focused on speed and efficiency these days, we would have more of them if we just used our heads.